Ironic Deception
by RandomDustBunnyzAngel
Summary: When Deidara is kidnapped on a mission to Kusagakure, it's up to Tobi to save him. But plagued by illness will he find his beloved sempai? Or will the feelings the enternal Uchiha holds for the bomber be lost forever? This is Guy/Guy. BEING REWRITTEN!
1. Chapter 1

**edited 5/12/12**

**Warnings: Terribly written, foul language, slight OOC-ness, and the future 'pairing'. Please do not bother reading if you don't like yaoi. If a decent wirter can't change your mind, I seriously doubt I can.**

**I don't own NARUTO Masashi Kishimoto does as well as TvTokyo, I do however own the plot.**

**0-0-0**

Quiet is a word some people do not understand.

And for one of the temporary inhabitants of a leaky, old two story house, lost somewhere deep within the forest of Kusagakure, this was a lesson that hit far too close to home to ever be comfortable.

"Senpai!," the high pitched voice of Tobi rang, bouncing off of ever hard surface of the was all of it.

As you'll notice today was starting off terribly for Deidara. Who was by far the worst morning person the masked ninja had ever met in his life.

Tobi -who was walking up the stairs with one hand on the wooden rail- was already humming and giggling excitedly at the thought of awakening his beloved senpai, and seeing the sleepy expression he loved to see. Eye lids drooped in mock seduction, hair free from its tie running over his slender shoulders.

It was much too dreary outside to have such an up-beat attitude. As many would agree.

"Senpai!," Tobi knocked on Deidara's door, when he -much to suspicion- received no threat of death or screams to go away, he opened it. "It's time to-," He stopped mid-sentence, finding the room empty aside from his partners sloppy looking futon.

The blanket was pulled off to the side, most of it laying on the floor, the pillow was slouched over against the wall like it had been thrown and the window was open letting in the heavy smell and sound of the pouring rain outside.

"Did he leave already?," Tobi mumbled, stepping through the threshold. He went over to the window, stepping on the futon as he did so, and leaned out the window. There was a bright red flash in the single dark eye-hole of his mask as his sharingan began to spin.

The blond wasn't out there, but ''Tobi'' could sense his chakra. It was pulsing and faint and there was a strange much stronger foreign chakra about the same distance away. but it was there.

And not here, like it was _supposed _to have been.

The raven closed his eyes and clenched his hand, forcing the ring on his left thumb into the hidden skin of his palm, the smooth purple **(1)** stone flashed with a streak of light.

''Tobi's'' eyes snapped open in a fierce red glare. He quickly spun on his heel and stomped out of the room, slamming the door as hard as he could behind him.

The resulting vibration sent the bombers hip pouch tumbling to the floor off of a high wall shelf, and to the floor, where it landed with a hollow _thunk._

**(Tanto lose Long Ranger! D:...Sorry couldn't help myself XD)**

**0 0 0**

Miles away, where the land was scarred black and the tree stumps that remained were smoldering, blown away by the two engaged in a fierce battle.

The missing blond terrorist slid back as he landed on the ground, his cloak shredded, his right arm mangled and all but a small coin size of his signature explosive clay left. He panted and through his eye narrowed in pain, glared heatedly at his opponent.

Said opponent was an odd looking man with sickly green and purple skin -which reminded the bomber of a decaying corpse-, grossly protruding ribs, arm bones, vertebrae and leg bones, shown to all by the poncho made of a monks robe ( red and yellow, the colors of Iwa-gakures temple) that ended just above an uneven set of extra rib bones.

His teeth where pointed and his nose was virtually nonexistent. Of all these things, what stuck out the most was his lack of a left arm (which suddenly ended right up to where the elbow was) and the strange zig-zagged shaped ornament that stood erect at the top of his head and appeared to be _imbedded_ in his scalp.

His physical appearance wasn't the only thing that shocked Deidara. his physical strength was phenominal as well. The fact that he didn't have a single hand held weapon, had not used a single hand sign, but still managed to knock Deidara off his clay bird -as he was flying to Kusa for supplies- with hundreds of lightning bolts that appeared out of a perfectly blue sky.

Which brought both him and his bird down to the ground, his creation exploded and quickly made work of the strange circle of dead trees they crashed into. Burning them to a crisp.

Shook the bomber to the core.

Deidara blamed himself for lowering his guard, he should've sensed something.

Even if the man suppressed his chakra. He was strong, and the kind of chakra it would take to create and control lightning in such a way... there would be no way to hide it completely, a genin would've been tipped off.

But even now, he could barely sense a thing.

Such attacks would take a tole on anyone, even a Jinchuuriki which are well known to have massive chakra reserves.

Worse yet, he had no way of knowing if the guy was losing chakra. Hell if he didn't know any better he'd think that with every blast his enemy seemed to get even stronger!

The strange man lifted his remaining arm, chirping like a bird as he did so.

Deidara closed his gaping mouth and creased his brow, "What the hell? hmm," he muttered to himself, straitening his back.

Small chirps continued to make their way out of the mans throat as his lips pulled up in a devilish smirk.

_"Red,"_ Finally it spoke, it's voice sounded forced as if it weren't used to speaking or was in pain. Deidara racked his brain over what it had said.

Red?

"SENPAI!," Initially Deidara flinched half out of surprise and half out of instinct, then he inwardly sighed in relief, at least he had back up now.

Even it was only _Tobi._

"Tobi! yeah," he yelled back, the flash of black that was his partner appeared in front of him.

Underneath his mask the Uchiha's eyes widened to the size of saucers.

Damn, Deidara looked terrible. His arm was mangled and burnt, his face was covered in bruises and scratches, and his infamous fringe that covered his eye was matted in blood and stuck to the side of his face, the mechanism he usually had on his eye was gone so he had it closed.

Madara didn't overlook his strange opponent either, honestly he was about as hard to miss as Deidara was.

In all his days he'd never seen something so hideous. And the smell, like singed hair times a thousand. It wasn't overpowering but he was wearing a mask and could _still _smell it, he couldn't imagine what it was like for Deidara even if he didn't show that it bothered him at all.

_"You,"_ The stranger pointed directly at the masked ninja.

'Tobi' looked around before pointing to himself, "Tobi?," he asked.

Deidara sneered, "Of course you would know such a freak! yeah."

Tobi shook his head raising his arms and crossing them together in an X like shape, "Tobi's never seen him before senpai, no way, no how," he said seriously.

It was true, the Uchiha had never seen such a creature (or whatever he may be) before. Zetsu and Kisame were the closest he'd ever come to human-like beasts- but not quite so.

That was all over now though.

He'd have to tell Zetsu, the plant man would get a kick out of it for sure.

The masked man flinched when he noticed Deidara's look that said 'Tell the truth or else.'

Something told him he knew what the 'or else' entailed.

"I'm telling the truth senpai, I've never seen him before," The Iwa looked away, knowing his partner was one hundred-percent serious, his habit of speaking in the third person always gave away when he was lying, _'Now won't be any different,'_ Deidara thought.

"Damn, yeah...I could've used this as an excuse to finally kill you!," Madara looked at him with surprise.

He believed him...He ACTUALLY believed him.

The creature/man rose his hand,"_Truth."_ he once again pointed to the masked man. The ornament on his head streaked white before sparks started to fly off the points, he laughed wildly as a giant streak of lightning flew at his intended target.

"Aiiii!," Tobi screamed, flailing his arms comically.

In between the spazzing of his partner and the lightning bolt headed strait for him "Shit!," Deidara momentarily lost his senses, instinct took over and he pushed off to tackled his frantic partner just in time.

The bolt just barely missed the blond yet he still felt painful shocks through his body.

The when light from the bolt faded, Deidara glared up at the masked man,"You idiot! hmm," he yelled.

"Sorry Sempai," Tobi apologized off-handedly, in the darkness of the mask his eye began to spin, watching their enemy ready another attack.

The masked ninja quickly wrapped an arm around Deidara , jumped to his feet and leaped out of harms way, past the burnt trees and into the green ones farther back. The blond yelling curses and threats all the way.

The beast chirped curiously when the one he went after reappeared alone, his chakra spiking, and his overall demeanor completely different.

Madara put his hands on his hips and stared the creature down, making it frown and step back submissively, it chirped and bobbed its head before he disappeared in a burst of light.

"_Watch him run, just a like a scared dog!"_

Madara shook his head and took a deep breath. _'Now is not the time to be hearing things.'_ he thought to himself.

After standing there for a few seconds while he scanned the area, and feeling assured that there was no longer an immediate threat, he returned to the safety of the trees where he left his partner.

At the tippy top of a towering pine tree.

Any normal, none injured, ninja would've been able to jump down. But Deidara _was _injured.

He was also stuck...

Shut up!

The blond held onto the trunk with a grip a bear would be proud of, his nails digging into the bark as he cursed at his partner when he appeared.

"You bastard i'll fucking kill you for leaving me up here! yeah,"

"Tobi's Sorry, but it was for Senpai's own good," Tobi waved his finger at the Iwa in a mock scold.

The bomber gave him a childish pout and looked away,"I don't hear the forest being fried, where is he?," he grumbled.

"He's gone sempai," Deidara deflated at his partners words, his already bruised pride throbbing.

He would have given a sarcastic remark, or barked some more...Had the world not started spinning.

The Uchiha crossed his arms as he looked at the Iwa. His aura was a mirror image as that of a child that had just been told his dog died. His glazed over eyes of disbelief, his furrowed eyebrows, his gushing torn arm, his weaving back and forth as he tried to stay conscious.

...Wait.

"Senpai!," Tobi called out, grabbing the blond by the collar of his fishnet shirt when his eyes closed and he tipped back, nearly falling of the branch.

_'Hm he isn't going to go anywhere anytime soon...'_ God-dammit.

The Uchiha pulled the bomber back upright, his head followed his limp body forward, landing on Madara's shoulder.

He was out cold. Great.

Madara put one arm across Deidara's back and managed to maneuver his other arm underneath his legs. Picking him up bridal style, he easily bounced him to assure his grip.

_Flashback_

_The holograms of the Akatsuki members stood on their assigned fingertips of the Gedo Mazo. Said members were patiently (some more patiently than others, namely Itachi) awaiting the heavily pierced man currently consulting with Tobi, to finish and tell them they could leave._

_The ''leader'' Pain had just finished handing out mission assignments to them._

_Taking his time with the usually hyper and 'in your face' member. Who had been strangely quiet through-out the meeting._

_It was obvious to the red head that his boss' mind was someplace else. _

_"Tobi, do you understand your mission?," Pain asked the masked ninja in a calm even tone. His voice was softer than it usually was. _

_"Yes sir." Tobi answered, taking a dull note of what he'd managed to catch of his mission details for later._

_A quick trip to the Village Hidden In the Grass to meet up with an Intel ninja that worked for them, simple enough._

_Satisfied with the answer the ringed eyed man nodded,"You may go," he watched Tobi's image flicker a couple of times before going out._

_"That kid's always so active, wonder what's wrong with him," Kisame pondered out loud._

_Itachi gave a grunt,"He's upset, you know how much he loves his sempai." he said emotionlessly._

_"_**How long **will he be like this_?" Zetsu's golden eyes burrowed in the ravens head._

_"Who knows." With a shrug, Itachi and the shark-nin vanished as well. Eager to take on and finish their mission._

_**"Leader."**__ The two halves of the plant man chorused at the remaining ninja._

_"Go, I will speak with him when he returns." Pain assured him._

_**"Sir."**_

_**0 0 0 **_

_The horrible weather had cleared, not that it had any effect on the soaking wet ninja sitting on the ground._

_Tobi cursed and stood, swaying on his feet as his head spun. He had only been sitting there for a couple hours at most, but it felt like so much longer._

_He didn't know his legs could ever be so numb._

_Ah well, what can you do. he had a mission, no use whining about getting dizzy or his legs falling asleep._

_The Village Hidden in the Grass. Kusagakure. Damn he had a long way to walk! Why couldn't Nagato have wanted something from Suna? It was so much closer._

_It was almost too stupid of a distance to consider venturing, at least for someone who had walked the path so many times that quite frankly he was sick of walking it!_

_But only almost. There was one reason as to why he accepted._

_And that why was the reason he was sitting just off an isolated forest path._

_What could it hurt if he took a brief stop before heading to Kusa?_

_The sides of Madara's mask furled out and spiraled, sucking him up and spitting him out a few miles away, appearing on a path that headed south. _

_He ran a hand through his hair -the only thing that had dried during the transport- to smooth down the frizzy strands before interlocking his fingers together behind his head and calmly walking up the new road he was presented with._

_There was supposed to be a village along the path if you followed it long enough. It really had no description except that it was small (barely even had one-hundred citizens) and ,according to Zetsu, was pretty well known for Inarizushi._

_If there was one thing that could make the elder feel better, it was his favorite snack._

_He was soon so lost in his thoughts about the tongue tingling treats that he didn't even notice the food stand he was passing (for wandering tourists and just about anyone with a craving for over priced tea.) or the smirking man sitting there._

_"Not bouncing around today I see. Heh, Seeing you so calm is strange, hmm," A familiar voice said with an amused tinge._

_Tobi snapped his head around at the food stand,"Senpai!," he visibly perked up at the sight of his partner._

_"Hey idiot." Deidara's smirked grew, "Got caught in the rain huh?" he looked the ninja up and down with a critical eye._

_The black cloak was droopy and soaked through to the inner layer with water. His shoes weren't much better off either, having given away the wearers advancments with their loud '_Squish_'ing. And yet for some reason his hair appeared to be as dry as a bone_

_Hardly an unusual phenomena, it usually took their cloaks __**hours**__ to dry enough to be wearable. Why Pain didn't give them back up cloaks he would never know._

_"Yeah, Tobi's fine though!," There was a barely audible sniff from underneath the heavy wooden mask._

_The bomber rose from his seat wearing an uninterested look and rested a hand on his partners clothed neck. He could feel Tobi's pulse as well as an extreme heat resonating from his skin through the fabric._

_What he didn't feel (or even notice visually) was Tobi's shiver as the tongue from his hand snaked its way out and swiped against the area it was pressed against._

_It had licked him and decided that it quite liked the taste. _

_Suddenly sensing danger the masked man stiffened. Preparing for some serious pain._

_"'Fine' __**right, **__yeah," Deidara pulled his hand back right as the mouth was about to take a bite._

_A breath of relief._

_That was close._

_The spiky haired ninja blinked to snap himself back to conscious thought,"B-but Tobi is! _Fine _I mean." he stuttered with a little less enthusiasm than he was going for._

_Suspicion flashed through Deidara's eyes and Madara sweated nervously ,catching his verbal mistake. _

_His nerves washed away and relief flooded through him as the blond he spun on his heel, shrugged and threw his hand in the air, his way of saying ''I don't care anymore''._

_Madara followed after him as he started walking, thankfully in the direction of the village the elder was heading to in the first place._

_"Leader told me we are heading to Kusagakure, hmm." _

_"Yes senpai." _

_Catching up to walk beside him Tobi asked,"Sooo how about you sempai, that storm was pretty bad! Are you feeling alright?"_

_"My arms are kind of sore, yeah." Deidara rubbed lower arm through the long thick sleeve._

_Tobi bounced,"That doesn't answer my question senpai!" he exclaimed._

_"Che, I'm fine dweeb. hmm." Patience wearing thin and they hadn't even been together for more than a few minutes._

_"Tobi is sooooo glad sempai is okay, Tobi doesn't know what he'd do if his senpai got hurt!" _

_The volume, the pitch. _God_. _

_Deidara's eye twitched, "Shut up." he hissed icily. _

_"Tobi's sorry senpai!" _

_The blong growled, "I told you to shut up!"_

_"Tobi is sorry." Tobi repeated in a softer tone._

_Deidara turned away from his partner and pulled his arm into the body of his cloak. Giving him easy access to the pouch of clay on his hip, his hand dipped inside and the mouth on his palm took a bite out of the soft clay it was presented with._

_Madara frowned beneath his mask, if he didn't play his cards right he'd be blown sky high._

_Typical Deidara, get annoyed and just blow the annoyance up. Madara would hate to see how he acted around a crying baby...on second thought no, he would love to see that._

_Still though he was-_

_"Such a fucking hot head." the words passed through his lips at a much louder volume than he had intended._

_Deidara frazzled at the comment like a cat that had just gotten its tail stepped on._

_He was NOT a hot head!_

_He was a fucking psycho._

_The difference was obvious and it just so happened that the bomber took great pride in all of his self given titles. even the not so flattering ones._

_Deidara's arm shot back through his sleeve, the tendons on the back of his hand moving as he extended it to catch the little creation being spat out._

_He turned to his partner, his gaze as frigid as a block of ice. "Five second head start! yeah." he lifted his hand and opened his fingers, revealing a small parakeet._

_A _**C2 **_parakeet._

_"Meep!," Tobi took off like a bullet back down the path the two had been walking down._

_Deidara tossed the bird which took off after the masked man._

_"AHH! GET IT OFF!," _

_"KATSU!,"_

_**0 0 0**_

_"Ooow,"_ _Madara groaned. Limping after Deidara at a snail like pace._

_Despite Tobi playing it off almost comically, moaning every five seconds about how much his back and foot hurt, he really was in a pain. _

_Yes folks the great Madara Uchiha was actually in pain, somebody call the newspapers, the one man that could only be defeated by Hashirama senju is showing physical distress!_

_From the tips of the toes on his right foot all the way up to the ankle there was a severe burning which would turn into a throbbing when he applied too much pressure to his foot. _

_Easily could be blamed on the pounding he was given by gravity after being flung into the air by Deidara's parakeet and the crash into the ground miles away._

_Good news, he didn't think any of his bones broke in the fall, probably sprained his ankle but that was something he could easily over come if he took his time._

_Bad news, he ended up flying so far that there was no way he would be able to hobble to the village._

_There would be no Inarizushi._

_Wost day _**ever**_!_

_And how was Deidara reacting to the fact that he had hurt his partner? Something he had previously never been able to do?_

_"Could you hurry up?" He was being a total prick._

_Naturally the sweet ,loving Uchiha was not happy about this._

_"Tobi would love to! If only he could." ''Tobi'' said bitterly. _

_Deidara halted in the middle of the path..._

_Oh come on! It wasn't like he _EXPECTED _Tobi to get hurt! He had always hoped he would, hell he wanted the annoying ass dead, but they had to go somewhere and there was a date and time at which they had to arrive._

_The blond ran his hand over his face._

_Madara too stopped and watched his partner swipe his bang out of his face,"Senpai?," the masked ninja asked warily. _

_Slightly concerned Deidara would throw another bomb at him._

_"Damn it." With that (along with a stomp of his foot) he quickly turned and made his way over to his partner._

_Bewildered, Madara stood in place, barely even blinking as Deidara situated himself under his right arm, letting the taller man lean on him like a crutch._

_"It'll take a week to get there if you're limping the whole way." The older shinobi's light laugh was replaced with a nervous bead of sweat at the comment that quickly followed suit, "Oh and if you say a word about this to anyone, you __**die**__,"_

_Of course, here was Deidara doing something nice for once and he can't let his own mask of indifference slip for even a second. He really was a bastard sometimes, not that the Uchiha had a right to judge._

_Tobi put his free hand on the smaller mans head,"Thanks," he said, happiness evident in his voice._

_A light blush dusted Deidara's cheeks,"Yeah, yeah, the second we find a place to stay though you'll be on your own, I need a bath," _

_This made the raven laughed again, only louder, " I didn't know you had a sense of humor Sempai,"_

_"What's that supposed to mean?, hmm," The terrorist's blush disappeared. Of course he had a sense of humor, if he didn't he would've killed himself long ago instead of constantly trying to blow up his partner all the time._

_Tobi winced,"W-well, I've never heard you laugh at anything, anything not related to murder anyway," Deidara pushed the childish ninja's arm off roughly and elbowed him in the chest, he coughed and fell backward onto his backside._

_"__**YOU'RE **__why i don't!," The ex-Iwa ninja quickly fled the scene._

_"Ugh," Tobi let himself fall onto his back, "Smooth Madara...Real smooth." he grumbled._

**end flashback**

Madara gently laid the blond down on his Futon and pulled the blankets over him. Leaving the pillow where it had been earlier (thrown against the wall), who knew if Deidara hurt his neck during the fight. It'd be best to just let him lay flat.

On the way back to the house, the Uchiha noticed his partner was no longer unconscious but had instead fallen asleep, at that point he just teleported back. Not seeing a reason in _walking _anymore.

Using his teeth he tore a long strip of fabric from the sleeve of his cloak, and used it to wrap Deidara's mangled arm. He did wash it in the rain dripping from the roof as a rough attempt at making it sanitary, but he knew it wouldn't be a suitable substitute for a bandage for long.

The house they were in wasn't suitable either, too many germs, too much mold, to warm. It was like one giant infection standing on its own.

The raven sat on the floor and pressed his back against the wall closest to the bomber, which happened to be right beneath the drafty window. The breezes that passed through made him shiver and pull his cloak tighter around himself. He sniffed, feeling his sinuses throb with his heart beat.

What a perfect time for this to happen.

Just as his body began to relax against the wall 'the voice' returned.

"_Will he be alright?"_

Madara sucked in a breath, startled by its sudden appearance.

"_Whoa, sorry."_ the voice chuckled, _"Didn't mean to scare you!"_

The Uchiha grumbled, it was quiet in the house except for the occasional pitter patter of rain on the roof. He couldn't pass off the voice this time.

It was time to get to the bottom of this.

_'Who the hell are you?'_ Madara thought slowly and maliciously.

_"Who?"_The voice asked thoughtfully,_" I am...Nobody. I don't exist."_

Less than satified with this answer Madara pressed,_'So...you're a figment of my imagination?'_

There was a 'tsk' ing sound and a hum,_"More psychological than that I believe."_

What was more psychological than an imaginary friend? Uuhhh..

_'My Conscience.'_ It was more of a blunt statement than a question. However the voice answered it as though it had been.

_"Huh. That doesn't sound quite right, I suppose I'm more like a mix of your subconscious and you conscience."_

Hn, Madara grunted, the term subconscious pertains to mental activity beyond the level of consciousness_..._And a conscience is what makes somebody feel guilty or tell them what they're doing is wrong. It's something ninja's can't have.

Or so Madara remembered being told as a child.

His eyes narrowed,'_If that's so, why can I hear you?'_

Madara could almost feel the aura in his head change(as strange as that may sound) as the voice chimed happily,_"Ah dear Madara! Why is the sky blue? Why is it sometimes colder under a blanket than in a freezing cold room? How can bee's fly despite the fact that logically their wings should be incapable of hoisting their comically over-size insect bodies? There are many mysteries in this world, my being here is simply one of them!"_

Finding himself growing more tired (might have something to do with his growing boredom) Madara yawned.

That 'monologue' hadn't even begun to answer his question.

_"Well excuse me! Why don't you come up with something if you're so interested in finding the answer!"_

At this the Uchiha smirked, _'I'd love to, if you weren't technically one of my thought processes.'_

_"Huh?"_

'_You're me, I'm sure you can figure out what I meant.'_

_"Curse you and your damn logic."_ The voice spat.

With his curiosity having been quenched enough for him to be comfortable tonight Madara again closed his eyes to try to get some rest.

_"You didn't answer my question earlier."_

"Hn." Madara grunted, agitated but not enough to open his eyes.

_"Will Deidara be alright?"_

"I don't know."

**tbc**

**(1) Remember this was Sasori's ring and was originally a green color, but somehow it changed to purple after Tobi got it. **

**The upcoming chapter flashbacks ARE very important to the story and are key points as to what happened to Deidara, next chapter you'll learn a bit about the creature that attacked Dei. Thank you for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**here's chapter 2 brought to you by, Veterans (Kicking ass so we don't have to, trust me if I had to fight we'd be lapsed by Canada) Annnnnnd Cheating. I cheat with my stories.**

**Thankies: Yuti-chan , QueenofFanficWorldLoveGunner. XD **

**I don't own NARUTO Masashi Kishimoto does as well as TvTokyo, I do however own the plot.**

**PS: I'm not going to write anything in POV except for a few scenes every few chapters. I don't want to show you how terrible I am at writing Madara's character.**

**4798 words! HEEEEELLLLLL YEEEEESSSSS!**

**0 0 0**

_'You know...A bit of emotion wouldn't be so bad,'_

Madara rolled his eyes, "If i didn't before I do now," he said.

He honestly had no idea what stupid voice had been blabbering on about for the last hour, Did it think he would go all woman and start bawling or pacing around waiting for the blond to wake up? he didn't care about the _him_, he didn't.

Even if he did -_WHICH_ he didn't- he was a _shinobi _and shinobi didn't get all emotional when someone went missing or died. The first time it happened, of course there would be a reaction but after seeing so much death, after seeing the life fade out of a persons eyes over and over again for years and years.

You get over it quicker, the reaction is internal instead of external and even so it's subtle ,then you push it down, down so deep that it's buried under whatever crap excuse you use to never let it see the light of day again.

Put simply, any emotion displayed by a senior shinobi, is nothing but a farce, a ruse, a way to make people see you as a human and not the weapon you had become.

Because a shinobi that feels for the man he was chosen to kill or for his team mates, is a shinobi that won't last long in a world full of such cruelty and evil.

Monsters. Demons

Whatever the title given to them, it's usually fitting.

_'I don't care what you say, if you keep up this little charade for much longer we'll go crazy,'_

"It's been an hour," Madara deadpanned.

_'Cause time is the most important thing with matters of the heart,'_

Madara's hand and eye twitched in annoyance, "If I could kill you, I would," he said in a bored tone.

'_Yes, but you can't, because __**I**__**am you**__ and that would be suicide,'_

"Yeah, I put that together,"

'_So you're __**not **__a complete idiot!,'_

Madara stayed quiet for a second thinking over what his subconscious just said, before his face drooped and his eyebrows creased,"I just called myself an idiot,"

'_You sure did,'_

The Uchiha felt like putting his fist through a wall, this stupid voice was really working his nerves, even if it was his own subconscious.

**0 0 0**

Almost six hours later, the house was completely silent except for the rain and the sound that the front door of the forest house made as the wind slammed into it, making it rattle and creating whistles it also let the rain pour in and puddle on the already rotting hard-wood floor.

Madara's eyes snapped open, glaring up at the ceiling from the floor, "That's it," he growled, slowly getting up.

He'd been waiting here through the night, it was nearing sun-up and Deidara had still not awakened.

The Uchiha had only gotten three hours of sleep, tops, which tended to happen regularly, what with being an S-class criminal on the run and all, but this time was different, this time he woke up unable to breath through his noise and a horrible crackling sound whenever he took a breath through his mouth.

He was sweating, he was freezing, his eyes were bloodshot and above all he was _Tired_. So very tired. Which never happened before, at first he just figured that part was his age finally taking its chance to catch up to him since he was sick but when he tried to get up he became so dizzy that he fell back down.

'_Oi, maybe you should find a medic,'_

Madara scoffed.

What? did the voice expect him to kidnap a medic and drag them back to the house? Kusa was the only place the Akatsuki weren't constantly being pestered by bounty hunters, plus the intel agent was of the village and completely willing to give them information he gathered about the other villages through his years of travel ,for _**free**_**.**

If Kusa turned, their source of info would as well, no if, an's or but's about it.

And Pain would probably crush both of them.

The Hidden Grass wasn't a shabby village, it didn't deserve that...

Okay seriously those moments of sweet honey suckle kiss thoughts were really getting stupid.

All through the night one would randomly pop into his head, that might've been why he barely got any sleep. A few were about flowers, nothing else, just flowers. A couple were about Konan, he really didn't know why they were just her being her regular bitchy self, and one was about Deidara.

More specifically the time the two had gone to gather information on the Sanbi, The masked ninja had a lot of fun with his Sempai on that mission, that was until he blew him up, wasn't that much fun then.

Then the thought turned into a very Madara-esk day-dream, one about chaos and destruction, his blond...His _partner_, had gone insane, he was covered in black veins and was slowly disappearing. Madara didn't understand the feeling that tugged at his heart when he saw Deidara slowly vanishing before his eyes and unconsciously reached out his hand toward open space, even though he knew it was just a day-dream.

He still felt the need to reach out.

To save him.

He lazily turned his head and watched Deidara take quick, shallow breaths, his face tensing as he winced every now and again it was then Madara finally realized that the bomber was already deteriorating.

'_If someone doesn't help him his wounds could green,'_ The voice literally sang to him. It was true, the wounds on Deidara's arm -which laid on top of the blankets- had bled throughout the night and the bandages were already crusted over, yellowish pus oozed down his wrist from underneath them, and the entire limb was swollen to almost twice it's normal size.

Madara knew they didn't have anything that could help keep it from getting any worse, he'd have to leave to go get some medicine or something and then come back. Hopefully in time.

Whatever type of infection it was, was spreading quick, so quick even if he teleported back to the base with Deidara and had Konan look over him, there was still a good chance it might be too late to save the arm, even worse the trip itself could actually make his condition worse.

It would put stress on him, stress that he really didn't need right now.

'_Why don't you just do it yourself?,'_

_"Because,"_ The Uchiha thought back, he wasn't exactly a medic, he knew how to stitch up small wounds and keep away infection but he had no idea how to treat an already existing one, his wounds always healed up on their own or he'd have Konan take care of them.

He didn't know anything about picking herbs or preparing them, he could wrap bandages but even a kid could do that, he barely remembered the very basic first aid he learned when he was a kid.

But now he guessed he'd have to just suck it up and do his best. He really didn't want to have to explain to Nagato what happened, it would be expected if Deidara was in a fight with a grand opponent and died but a fight with an infection, no he'd never be able to live it down.

Deidara was the youngest and one of the strongest members of the Akatsuki, in fact none of the others had any doubts that if Itachi wasn't gifted with the Sharingan there would've been no way The Iwa bomber would have lost to him.

It was as Deidara always said, the Uchiha were just blessed with good genes. Even Madara agreed. as he usually did, he and the blond thought alike.

They both understood the pain of having to abandon everyone they loved because they turned their backs on them.

They both saw the world as the dark place full of selfish people with agenda's.

They both sought something greater.

The only differences were their ages and experience in war. As far as Madara knew Deidara had never even Seen a war, let alone felt what it was to fight in one.

That was it.

Right then his mind was made up for him.

'_So we're going?,'_

Madara nodded, he couldn't believe he actually talked _HIMSELF_ into going. But now he just felt like he owed his partner in some way. What greater payment is there than to save someones life?

'_Food is a nice substitute,'_

The Elder forced back a groan but it was nothing but wasted effort because he let it out anyway as he stood up. It wasn't like his joints actually ached, it was just his mind. The grunts and moans weren't necessary but they seemed to help in some way.

_'That's just an excuse and you know it old man,'_

He dusted his cloak free of whatever small creatures had crawled into the folds of his cloak over night, before heading over to the door, casting one last glance down to Deidara as he gently closed the door.

'_Woop! Out of this place and back to the beauty of Kusagakure! Home of hot springs and the hottest working girls ever!,'_

Madara chuckled lightly at the voice starting his descent down the stairs. Not giving any thought to breeze that passed him, until he heard a whisper in his ear.

"Tobi,"

The ancient man stopped.

_'Wha' wrong?,'_

He ignored the voice and looked back up the stairs, he listened but when he didn't hear anything, he pushed a hand past the barrier of his mask ridge and rubbed his forehead, "Probably just the wind," he muttered.

_'Yeah...Probably,'_ The voice agreed unsurely.

After putting his mask back down into its original position, Madara quickly slipped on his shoes and he was out of the house, flying through the lower branches of the tall trees.

**Time Skip**

Madara pushed his way through the bustling Kusa Village street carrying a bag of white bandages, bumping into people who yelled curses after him and knocking over a couple of children as he did so.

The stomping feet of the people kicked up mud and stained the already beyond angry Uchiha's cloak. 'pissed off' wasn't even in the right category 'Absolutely _livid_,' was much more accurate.

He'd been to six different stores and not one of them had what he needed, well he did find bandages but, that wasn't all he needed! he needed bandages, gauze, and a crap load of different ointments.

And at every store he went to none of them carried ointment -which is stupid- and all of them were out of gauze, yeah, Irony is a sick twisted bitch.

Now he was on his way to a Herb center that the cashier at the last store told him about, she said that was the only place he could hope to find medicine, at this time.

'_Do you know what she meant by 'At this time'?' _The voice asked curiously.

_"No,"_ Madara thought back.

Finally the Greenhouse came into view and he picked up his pace, he pushed open the door and was met by the sight of a fully stocked greenhouse and an old gray haired woman sitting in a rocking chair, stroking the orange cat that dozed on her lap.

(yes only two chapters in and there is already a cute fuzzy animal)

Noticing the Uchiha standing in the door eyeing the place the old woman spoke, "If you're coming in then come in, you're letting in bugs," Madara stepped in, letting the glass door swing shut.

"Are you the herbalist?," he asked.

The old woman smiled,"I am," she nodded,"My name is Momo and this is Mei,"

_'Momo and Mei, cute,'_

"My name is Tobi,"

"Hmm, so what brings you here Tobi?,"

"My um..." Friend? companion? acquaintance?,"_Colleague_, is injured and really needs medicine,"'

"Have you tried Garlic?,"

Madara blinked,"...You mean those white things that people crush up and put into food?," he asked, quirking an eyebrow.

The stuff that smelled like feet was an herb?

The old Woman nodded,"It's also good for the heart,"

"But it stinks,"

"Do you see those?," she motioned to the small pot of violate purple daisies sitting beside her, "These are purple Coneflowers, they can help you get over your cold faster,"

Madara blinked, how did she know he was sick? was it so obvious that an old woman that couldn't even see his face could figure it out?

_'We do sound like a sick guy, that might be why'_ the Uchiha would've smacked himself for his stupidity if it wasn't for his mask being in the way.

"Uh, No, I'd rather fight it off myself I'm usually not that sick for very long," he finally answered slowly.

"You sure you're a man?," Momo narrowed her eyes.

"Of course!,"

"No need to get snippy It was just a joke," The cat jumped off Momo's lap so she could stand, not a single quake or shiver or even any groans as she did,"With that mask you could be a beautiful woman for all I know," she said, heading over to a wall of different plants.

'_A beautiful woman that sounds like a man!,'_ the voice in Madara's head said in an over the top 'Manly' tone.

_"You sound surprised,"_ The raven thought back, the voice sputtered for a second before laughing.

Momo made quick work of picking what she thought would be needed, she'd spent many years in her garden, assisting to the ninja that came by to rest before returning to work or going home, she knew exactly what she wanted.

Once she was finished she walked up to him -without any sign of fear- and began to pull out different colored plants, naming them off as she handed to him,"Give your friend these," she held out a green stemmed plant with tiny white flowers, very bold contrasting leaves and the roots still attached,"This is Meadowsweet a pain reliever," she said going for more bundles.

One looked more like a branch and had a big purple almost flat looking flower with roundish leaves,"I also have Passion flower, it'll help him sleep," One had droopy bell shaped flowers on a bent stem again the roots were attached,"Comfrey it'll help fight infection,"

"I'll throw in this for free," She passed Madara the last plant, a few sprigs of what looked like an ordinary weed, it was the whole plant, a long solid, green stem, spiked leaves, and a few tiny white bell shaped flowers bundled together at the top of the plant.

"This looks like," Madara started.

"That's because it is," Momo nodded.

'_Dude, she gave us catnip,'_

_"I heard it was good for a cough,"_ Madara tucked the plants away into the pocket inside his cloak.

"Measure each plant into equal parts and dry them over a fire separatly then grind them together and brew them into a tea, it will be bitter and your friend won't like it but it will help him, the same can be done with what i gave you, just make sure there aren't any cats around first," Momo smiled.

Madara nodded.

"Before you leave there is something I must tell you," The old herbalist said in an ominous tone, her smile replaced with a stern motherly expression,"It's best you and your friend stay out of the forest for the next week,"

_'Uhhh'_

Madara blinked,"Why?,"

"Every year we have a festival and the creature of Lightning,Shiro, appears and every year one unfortunate soul wanders into the forest and they are never seen again," by the end of her short story both the Uchiha and the voice in his head were completely silent.

Momo's smile suddenly returned,"Do come back though, the village is having a baked goods sale this Tuesday,"

Madara's subconscious laughed nervously, "You're insane aren't you," the raven said with an amused smile.

The old woman cackled, "That's right,"

_0 0 0_

_Tobi and Deidara walked through the gate of a small trading village after dispatching the two stationed guards. The masked ninja was bouncing around, his ankle already healed, thanks to his sempai coming back after calming down and helping him to a cave he'd found._

_They got a good rest and Tobi was ready to go, he wouldn't be __**leaping**__ like he usually did for at least another day though, so it was good that there wasn't a big hurry to get to Kusa._

_Or was there? Tobi's mind was so fuzzy from a fever he couldn't remember one of the most crucial details of his mission, crap, Pain was going to give him an ear full._

_"Tobi,hmm," Deidara pulled him from his thoughts,"You okay?," The masked ninja noticed the hint of concern hidden beneath the usual annoyed expression._

_"Yeah...Yeah I'm fine, why?," Tobi asked._

_Deidara sweated, "Well for one, you're standing in the middle of the road mumbling to yourself," It was a good thing this wasn't a prime destination spot for any major village tourists, they'd be recognized in seconds, "And number two you didn't talk in a third person,"_

_Tobi inwardly cursed and looked around for some kind of distraction,"Sempai! Sempai! lookie there's dango! Oh can we stop please? Pleeeeaaaase?," he whined, pointing a finger at a small enclosed partially enclosed wooden tea stand._

_He almost laughed at the convenience of them,almost._

_Deidara instantly visibly calmed and looked over at the stand._

_Tobi crossed his fingers, hoping the blond would take the bait, plus he was kind of hungry and didn't think he'd be able to keep his stomach from growling for much longer. Pinecone seeds can only keep one quiet for so long __**(1).**_

_"Why is it every-time we come across a sweet stand you want to stop?~!," Deidara was back, no longer suspicious, just a little annoying at the thought of stopping just for __**sugar **__of all things, little brat was already jumpy enough without it._

_"'Cause Tobi like sweets," Tobi answered simply with a shrug of his shoulders._

_"Obviously, you have candy stashes all around the hideout,hmm" Deidara grumbled._

_"So?" _

_"Fine, but I want Daifuku __**(2)**__ I'm not in the mood for dango," The blond gave in, walking over to the stand and sitting down, Tobi plopped down beside him, a little too close in Deidara's opinion._

_An old woman, the owner of the stand, walked up behind them, "Hello, can I help you?," she asked._

_"Tobi wants DANGO! and Daifuku for my sempai," Tobi laid his hand out as a gesture to his partner._

_The woman blinked at him before smiling nervously and slowly walking backwards back into the kitchen._

_"That was weird, don't you think sempai?," Tobi whispered, cupping a hand over his ''mouth''._

_"Hm," Deidara gave an uninterested grunt, "The lady, she was all nervous," He rolled his eyes, the masked ninja's keen powers of perception were staggering._

_"We __**are **__criminals Tobi, yeah,"_

_"Tobi knows that! But the villagers around here usually don't care about who we are," Tobi leaned even closer towards the blond, so close the looser parts of their cloaks were touching._

_Deidara pushed him back,"Maybe she got scared by that animated pumpkin you call a mask, hmm," _

_"What do you mean sempai?,"_

_"It's creepy, yeah,"_

_"No it's not,"_

_"Yeah, it is," To prove his point Deidara leaned back a bit, revealing the small form a black haired little girl who was waiting for her mother that had gone to the restroom. _

_Tobi raised a hand, about to ask where the hell she came from when her eyes widened. She screamed at the top of her lungs and turned away,she was practically sobbing as she ran off._

_Deidara smirked, "See?,"_

_Tobi stared at the retreating back of the little girl until she was but a mere dot in the distance,"Sempai's so mean to Tobi!," he whined, crossing his arms childishly._

_"Not my fault you have terrible taste," _

_Tobi went quiet, he opened his mouth a couple of times before he spoke again,"Sempai really doesn't like my mask?," he asked, genuinely curious._

_"Not in the slightest, yeah," _

_The old woman walked back up behind them and sat down two plates, one had three sticks of dango each one had a different topping, one was covered in crushed black sesame seeds, a mixture of Kiinako and sugar was on another and the last one had a light drizzling of a sweet soy sauce._

_One the other plate were three white, palm sized, balls that had a light dusting of potato starch._

_"Here you go," The woman still looked like she was nervous, but she had a kind smile on her face regardless._

_"Thank you!," Tobi sang, throwing his arms up at the arrival of his treat. "Oh looks soooo good!," he carefully picked up the black sesame dango by the end of the wooden skewer, he put a hand on his mask ready to take a bite, when he heard a sigh, he looked to Deidara,"Hey aren't you going to eat your daifuku?," _

_Deidara shook his head and slid the plate to his partner,"I'm not hungry anymore,"_

_"Oh well, more for Tobi!,"_

_0 0 0_

Madara sighed as he stopped short of a branch and landed on the ground, his foot sliding a bit on the slick grass.

'_Could you please stop doing that?~!,'_ His subconscious yelled.

_"Why, scared?,"_ Madara smirked.

_'No, I'm feeling sick, which means your feeling sick, which means you should STOP doing that before you lose your lunch,'_

_"We haven't even had lunch yet,"_

_'That's not my fault now is it?,'_

As the two continued to go back and forth until a voice other than his pest of a consciousness caught Madara's attention.

'-_Your mother!,'_

"_**Boar have you found anything?,"'**_

Madara quickly shushed himself.

_**"Negative,"**_

They sounded close.

Like a snake the Uchiha silently slithered back up into the trees, he crouched and swung from branch to branch, moving up a little higher into the thicker levels of leaves, he stopped at the tree line in a crouch.

'_I'm kind of glad we didn't stop for pork buns,'_ Madara's mind commented as he looked over the forest house.

Wandering around the rotting old cottage were ANBU.

_**LOTS**_ of ANBU.

But it was still as quiet as when he'd left. The top ninja (Top men :D) weren't in a particular formation, which meant they were pretty lax about the situation, they had their guards down.

Something no logically thinking ninja would do when in the presents of even a downed enemy.

_'Do you think he's still in there?,'_ The voice asked in a hushed voice.

_"No," _The Uchiha narrowed his eye, "_I don't sense his chakra, they must have taken him away," _he flickered himself around on the branch, turning his back to the house and stood up.

_'Um hello~! Wrong direction! the ANBU wouldn't take Deidara to Kusa! They'd take him to some secret camp or-,'_

"Konoha,"

The voice paused for a moment,'_Those are Leaf village ANBU?,'_

Madara didn't answer, they did look like leaf ANBU but they could have been from Kumo for all he knew. There was no obvious distinction between an Iwagakure ANBU and a Kirigakure ANBU and unless one of them just happened to be carrying some type of documentation from the village they were from, it would take a lot of time to figure it out.

'_First, that doesn't answer my question and second that doesn't explain what you're doing, do you plan on tailing them or something?,'_

"You'll see,"

_'Damn it, I hate when we get all secretive,'_

_0 0 0_

_"We're finally here sempai!,"_

_Tobi laughed happily as he fell back onto the soft bed, the Inn room he and his sempai had gotten was plain, with solid white walls, white sheets and white curtains but it was still a room with heat, comfort, a great view of the Hidden Grass Village and even a hot spring!_

_Ah twas the beauty of Kusagakure._

_Deidara was curled up in the sheets beside the childish ninja, his hair wet but still tied,"Stupid woman, 'We have no double beds available, why would you want one anyway?," he mimicked the voice of the young Inn cashier with a harsh scowl on his face, "Piss me off, when we leave I'll make sure she sleeps forever," he rolled over onto his side away from his partner._

_"But Tobi doesn't mind sharing a bed with sempai!,"_

_"I don't care either, as long as you stay on your side of the bed, yeah," The penalty for crossing the invisible wall Deidara mentally build down the bed was death, or in Tobi's case, bad burns, a free flight back to Amegakure or sleeping in the tub if he was feeling generous._

_"Don't worry sempai! Tobi will be a good boy and let Sempai sleep," Tobi got back up and cracked his back._

_"Where are you going?, yeah," Deidara asked curiously, not looking up or moving at all._

_"Tobi's gonna go soak in the spring!," The mysterious ninja pulled off his cloak and laid it out on the bed, feeling it to make sure it was dry enough not to leave a big wet spot._

_"Good for you, yeah," _

_"Sempai doesn't want to come?," Tobi asked as he opened the door._

_"Why would I? I hate hot springs," _

_"Sempai doesn't know what he's missing,"_

_"I'm not missing anything, hmm. I have a bed, my art and a shower, I'm happy without such money wasting luxuries," Deidara tugged the covers up over his head._

_"If you say so, I'll be back later," when Tobi received nothing but silence he sighed and left the room, gently closing the door so not to jostle his partner. Stretching high he headed down to the hot spring._

(I was going to put a scene here but it just didn't fit in right :/)

_0 0 0_

_The raven pulled his long baggy sleeve of his 'casual shirt' back up arm, and pulled the towel off his head as he readied to enter his and Deidara's Inn room, he cracked the door open then took a deep breath._

_After peeking his head a smile tugged at his lips, Deidara was on his back one arm draped over his eyes to block out the light left on in the bathroom, his ponytail tie had come loose and unraveled letting the golden locks fall free and flutter out around his head on the pillow._

_Tobi pushed the door closed with his foot and locked it, before heading over to the bed and crawling under the covers. It wasn't like he needed them, the room was warm enough and the extra heavy clothes he was in made sure he wasn't going to be shivering any time soon, but he wanted to be under them, he wanted to be just a little bit closer to the Iwa._

_Tobi slowly began to inch a hand across the pillows towards Deidara's head, he felt compelled to just touch him, poke him something-anything!,"Tobi, yeah," he flinched and pulled back quickly, tucking his arm under the blanket._

_"Y-yes sempai?," he stuttered._

_Deidara turned over letting his arm drape over Tobi's chest,"...You're feeling okay?," he pulled himself closer, never once opening his eyes._

_The masked ninja sweated, he was half out of it,"I am," he answered slowly, working his arm around the smaller man._

_What? Just because he was half asleep didn't mean Tobi wasn't going to miss his chance._

_Deidara looked up at him through his long eyelashes and smiled at him, "Good, hmm," his expression darkened, "Now get the fuck out of the bed,"_

0 0 0

Madara's footsteps sloshed in the mixture of mud and fresh blood pools all around him, the faint gurgles of dying ANBU echoed hollowly in his ears, tuned out by the heavy rain.

The lone survivor of the attack pitifully tried to drag himself away from the scene, pieces of his broken pig mask embedded in his face, one of his legs practically sliced in half only hanging on by a few tendons and layers of muscle, The Uchiha stepped in his path, making the poor ANBU look up into his eyes,"Who are you?," he asked in fear, noticing the blood red orb that he immediately recognized.

"Your worst nightmare," Madara growled, picking up his foot and stomping on the young ninja's head, using his massive strength to crush the strong bone of the mans skull, killing him instantly.

**(RNT: Momo means Peach and Shiro means Fourth son, four is a very unlucky number in Japanese folk-lore because of its pronunciation, ''Shi'' which has the same pronunciation as 'Death')**

**TBC-TBC**

**(1). **Pinecone seeds are VERY VERY VERY tiny, but can fool the stomach into thinking its something bigger. They taste like sand though Xp might as well stop and eat a sammich. Hmmmm, sammiches =w=

**(2).** Ichigo (Strawberry) Daifuku, basically a strawberry encased in anko (red bean paste) and rice flour dough called Mochi. Sweet and sour, sweet and sour.

This has been your pointless bit of information!

**Thank you for reading! Review! JA NE~!**


	3. Chapter 3

**This chapter is Filler but it's filler with a purpose! it has to be since its only the Third chapter, dissapointing much? Yes, VERY. I'm just trying to milk it out instead of quick pacing it like in Silver fang , it was supposed to be 20 chapters -_- how many did it up being? 12. It still has a 2 in it! **

**Thankies: Yuti-chan, Lycan723, katsuki-namikaze and Queenoffanficworldlovegunner. It's always nice to type new names ^_^**

**Oh and Miki611 for a fav totally unrelated to this story.**

**I don't own Naruto and if I suddenly did, I'd kill everyone! except the antagonist (Does not include Kabumaru)**

**(Start)**

Three hours of traveling and cursing at the clouds to "Stop with all the fucking rain already," Madara decided to give his second in command an update as to what was going on. he readied himself for the lecture he thought he'd get and called Pain.

Both their holograms appeared in the dark cave meeting room that only Pain, Madara and Konan were allowed to use.

"Lord Madara, how is the mission going?," Pain asked the hologram of his boss.

Madara almost winced,"Not very well, " he answered slowly with a hint of, anger? no, not anger, more like, disappointment.

The ringed eyed man rose an eyebrow,"Has something gone wrong?,"

What was harder to say? I may have compromised the mission by killing a bunch of ANBU or I lost my partner?, "Yes, Deidara has been captured," Rather obvious which one he chose.

"Sir?,"

"There was an incident in Kusa, in my search for my partner, I compromised the mission...If word gets out, the agent may not be willing to cooperate anymore," Madara explained.

"You know that makes no difference, it was you that said 'Seal the mouth leave the mind wide open,' we can still obtain the information we need," Pain assured.

"I'm glad you see it that way, now I can resume my search,"

"Sir you-,"

"I will get him back soon enough, then we'll find the intel agent and head your way to perform the mind-swipe,"

Pain let out a croak, "Wait! What did you-," Madara's hologram vanished, "Do?,"

A familiar pair of golden eyes popped open in the darkest corner of the room, "Pain,"

"I know," Pain pinched the bridge of his nose, sometimes that man was just plain strange.

Many miles away in Kusa forest.

Madara yawned and stretched high, running a hand over his face, his mask was pulled to the very top of his head, acting like a hat that smashed down the spikes of black locks and kept the rain off of his face.

'_That went better then expected,'_ he thought, for once not hearing a sarcastic retort from his subconscious.

Now that he had back up from Pain, if need be, he could start the long journey to Konoha, after much debate with the voice in his head he decided they were the most likely suspects.

Yes there were other villages he was suspecting if the whole Konoha thing didn't work out, such as Kumogakure, they had the eight-tails and then there was the Bombers own village, which was home to the Four-tails, even if he wasn't there they'd still see to it to eradicate an Akatsuki if given the chance.

But Konoha was the first stop. He was just hoping he wouldn't arrive too late, his teleporting abilities were only useful when he had a specific knowledge of the area, something he didn't have for Iwa, Kumo or the new Konoha.

Kami knows what had changed since the last time he was there, he'd heard from Itachi that Orochimaru attacked the village sometime during the Chuunin exam a few months before Sasuke defected, depending on the damage the entire area could be different.

Unsure though he was, there was one place that he knew was exactly the same. The Valley Of The End. The place he went to think, to plan and to nap when the base got too noisy.

Not to mention it was the perfect place to plan his strategy and his route once he found the ANBU base. It obviously wouldn't be _IN_ the village itself, which was the problem, it would be somewhere on the outskirts, probably underground and heavily guarded by Black Ops.

The Black Ops in Konoha were littered with ROOT ANBU, the bases wouldn't be any different and where there are ROOT there was Danzo.

And there inlaid the biggest obstacal, if Madara was found out, he'd be left to fight Danzo and that would intercept his master plan.

The Moons Eye Plan.

But if Deidara died...It wouldn't effect anything.

So what was he doing here. If he knew that, what was the point of leaving the safety of the house and trudging out even deeper into the forest to find supplies so he could go save Deidara, the same man that was practically useless?

'_You know why,'_

Madara groaned as his head began to throb. His reality was slowly slipping away, his perception and his judgement were also disappearing, _**leaving**_ him, just like everything always did.

'_Maybe you should go see a medic for that. it can't be good to be getting headaches and fevers at the same time,'_

Plus he had his own mind -which had created an opinion of its own- to deal with, stupid thing, more annoying than a nat.

The currently unmasked nin continued on despite the pounding, eventually he worked his way so far into the forest that he came to a cliff, but not just any cliff.

Madara couldn't help but gape a bit, "Roku falls," And damn did the landscape live up to its name, from above the ninja counted six waterfalls, all about as large or larger than that in the final valley and all flowed down into the dense green overgrowth, where the sound of the splashing was muffled but not silenced.

Caught up in observance he managed to catch a glimpse of something strange out of his eye for a split second before moving on again.

'_Oi, pinecone head!,'_ His mind caught him.

"What?,"

'_A house! Go back to where you just looked ya bloody moron there was a __**house**__!,'_

Madara looked down over the cliff and muttered,"You're kidding," he looped his vision back around, it took him a minute but sure enough hidden beneath the cover of foliage was a small shack like house- the roof of it anyway.

"What the hell is a house doing in the middle of a canyon?,"

'_Why was the house you and Dei bunked down in out in the middle of a freakin' __**forest?**__ Who cares about details! They might have FOOD !,'_

"I have more important matters to attend to!,"

'_Well __**I **__am hungry and you and me are one in the same, two pea's in a pod, two fish in a barrel, two squid in a __**frying pan**__,'_ Madara's eye drooped lazily as he listened to his subconscious mind ramble, '_Two scoops of ice cream on a cone, a cup of tea and a good book, a-,'_

"I GET IT!," Madara yelled, his voice hit the walls of the canyon and echoed back at him making his eye twitch.

'_So, we're going right?,'_

Madara sighed, "If it'll shut you up, fine," he put a foot on the edge of the cliff and looked down, trying to find a place to land.

'_Dude you know talking to yourself will make people look at you weird,'_

"Have you seen what my mask looks like?," The Uchiha laughed.

'_Point taken me,'_

Madara leaped over the edge and plummeted down towards the trees below while his own mind screamed at the top of its metaphorical lungs.

**The walk down to the house is boring so we skip!**

Madara threw the front door of the shack open and scrambled inside before slamming it shut and leaning up against it, several thuds sounded as a mob of creatures slammed their tiny bodies into the wood. Soon they stopped and all that could be heard was the soft rain pattering down and a few angry squeaks.

The scratched up ninja panted a bit, "DAMN LITTLE RODENTS!," he yelled.

_'Man don't you think you overreacted just a bit?,'_

"NO! It shouldn't have jumped on my head!,"

_'Still didn't have to strap a paper bomb to it...'_

Madara couldn't help but smirk a bit, "It was a justified defense tactic,"

_**'His **__attack was justified, that squirrel was only trying to avoid getting squished by your huge pedicured feet,'_

"That thing was a demon trying to gouge my eye out is what it was," The voice didn't have a response to that.

Madara smiled in triumph, straitened out his cloak and situated his mask to cover his bloodied face, the squirrel had managed to leave a few battle scars on him before it blew up, he'd fazed through the explosion but was promptly surrounded by the tree rats friends

( He could've sworn one was dressed in a miniature suit of armor with a twig as a sword, riding on the back of a cat, but he chalked it up to a fever induced hallucination. Where would a squirrel find tiny samurai armor?)

If Deidara had been there he would've loved that, he _always _loved it when his partner got attacked by small creatures (One time a chipmunk crawled up his pant leg ,the blond was blue in the face). Madara's smile dropped, there was that feeling again, the one that struck him in that day-dream.

_'Alright enough pouting! To the kitchen!,'_

Madara winced at the volume and clenched his head, he slunk forward with a lazy posture down the long hallway, passing the kitchen and an empty front room as he went.

_'Oi, I said KITCHEN! Where are you going?~!,'_

"My head hurts too much to eat," He just wanted to find a place to rest a for a bit, he didn't know why but he felt fatigued all of a sudden, like his body would just give out any second.

_'Pft, fine, starve us see if I care,'_

Madara pushed open the first door on the right of the hallway, the light from the window at the very end of the hall was letting in just enough light to dimly brighten up most of the room and cast a large silouette.

Inside was an empty well made bed, a scroll with the Kanji for 'Ink' pinned on the wall and a night stand.

He walked in and after setting up a chakra sensor that would alert him to any intruders (or squirrels) laid down on the bed with his arms behind his head. Almost immediately his headache began to lessen, soon it was all but gone. Normally that would be the signal to get going again, but by then he'd already drifted off into a light sleep.

_0 0 0_

_Tobi was leaned up against the wall outside of the Inn room bathroom door, his arms crossed casually over his chest as he waited for his partner to exit his make-shift 'Bedroom'._

_"Sempai, Tobi's back hurts," His acting abilities kicked in to overdrive as he played hurt._

_Sleeping in the tub was far from a ''Pleasant'' experience but it wasn't bad. Actually the worst part was having to lean his head against the wall making his neck stiff._

_"If you had stayed on your side of the bed you wouldn't have had to sleep in the tub, hmm," Deidara called back as he turned off the shower spray._

_"Tobi's sorry, he just couldn't help himself, you looked so pretty,"_

_"Learn to exercise some self control or next time you're going to be saying goodnight to leader, yeah,"_

_"Tobi doesn't think Leader would like him intruding on alone time with Konan," last time that happened he had to grow a new leg and everything._

_"Hmm," Deidara walked out of the bathroom with a fluffy white towel wrapped around his body, it was pulled up his chest for some reason, probably to stop his hair from dripping all over the place._

_". . ." _

_"What?, hmm," he asked, feeling uneasy at his rowdy partners silence._

_When Tobi didn't answer, the blond eyed him for a moment before shrugging lightly and going over to the bed where his cleaned clothes sat, Tobi had been nice enough to ask (threaten) the cleaning lady to wash them._

_Deidara forced down a chuckle, ah the look on that old woman's face when the cold blade of the masked mans kunai was pressed against her throat, priceless._

_"I lied,"_

_Flinching out of his thoughts Deidara turned to look at Tobi,"You lied?, hmm,", A nod," About what?,"_

_"My reason for breaching the border,"_

_It took a second for the bombers mind to work this through before he barked,"I KNEW IT! YOU FUCKTARD YOU TRIED TO KILL ME, DIDN'T-," he was cut off by Tobi gently lifting a handful of his sopping wet locks up and pressing them to his mask, _

_"What I meant was you always look pretty," _

_Deidara lightly blushed as he brushed Tobi's hand away,"Don't touch my hair, hmm,"_

_Tobi chuckled. _

_0 0 0_

'_OIIII! PINECONE!,'_ Madara let out a strangled noise as he opened his eye, '_Oh good you're awake,'_

"Ugh, what?," The raven mumbled sitting up in the bed.

'_It's time to stock up and head out, you've rested long enough,'_

"How long have I been out?,"

'_Six hours! It's been very boring, for a genius your head is pretty damn blank when you're asleep,'_

Madara snorted, swing his legs over the edge of the bed,"Couldn't you just watch my dream?,"

_'I did, it was quite captivating though lacking somehow,'_ The voice said in a thoughtful tone.

"Oh yeah?,"

_'Yeah, you and Deidara flirting, it was so cute,'_

"I didn't flirt!," The Uchiha bellowed.

'_Touching his hair, calling him pretty and chuckling at how cute he is when he's blushing isn't flirting? Wow, then Itachi owes those fan girls of his an apology,'_

Thunder rolled, and lightning flashed as it started to rain again, Madara's expression drooped.

'_Oh it's raining again,'_ his Subconscious noted.

"Great,"

How long was this damn storm going to last? it was like it was following him.

Taking the chance the voice started chiming,'_Food! Food!,'_

Madara sighed.

_0 0 0_

_In the Kusa village market, standing in front of one of the many makeshift stores connected by tarps stretched over the walking paths, a cloak less Madara was waiting for the produce stand owner -an old farmer woman- to finish bagging his rice._

_He didn't want to be a nag but It was taking forever._

_You ever hear the old proverb that says women age like wine?_

_This woman apparently aged like milk. Her hands were shaky, she moved half the speed of a snails ass and the Uchiha had to repeat everything he said over and over and over and over again._

_He didn't want __**mice**__ and he certainly didn't want __**lice **__he wanted __**RICE.**_

_Eventually she understood and got to work, ''Eventually'' being the key word._

_"What? you won't have any Chocolate vine __**(1) **__until next week?," Madara looked away from the freak show at the sound of the surprised mans voice._

_"I have to send my kid all the way to Roku falls to get them," The owner of the exotic fruit stand behind him said,"And the festival is this week,"_

_"Oh yeah, I forgot what day it was," The balding customer said sheepishly._

_Festival?_

_"Six-hundred ryo," The old farmer heaved the small pound and a half bag of rice on the counter. _

_The elder handed her the money, it was exact so she didn't need to count it, thank Kami-sama,"Thank you please come again!,"_

_Madara grunted as he grabbed the bag and walked off, his mind already someplace else._

_What festival could the men have been talking about? he didn't see any decorations being prepared, there weren't any booths being set up. Though he did notice the older shinobi of the village standing outside of shops wrapping bandages around their wrists._

_Something ninja did when they expected to be a fight with heavy hand-to hand combat._

_But unless the festival was going to be one giant drunken brawl he didn't suspect it had anything to do with the festival._

_Shrugging he decided to forget about it, what relevance could it have?_

_A few hours later back in Madara and Deidara's inn room, the raven lay sprawled out on their bed, his stomach full of rice, happily snoring and muttering incoherent things, though every now and then a not so subtle word would pop up._

_"Lower," he giggled, "Nice,"_

_He was jolted awake by Deidara throwing his cloak across his stomach._

_"Get up Tobi, hmm," he said throwing down the bag Tobi got him by said ninja's feet and roughly pushing in his cloak and whatever else he wanted to swipe from the inn._

_"Wh-," The Iwa cut him off, "There are ANBU down stairs, they're passing around flyers, yeah,"_

_Beneath his mask Madara pouted, he though he really hit it off with the young Cashier girl when he was coming back from town, she giggled at his jokes and everything!_

_"Is anyone talking sempai?,"_

_Madara knew the people in Kusa preferred to maintain as much Peace as they could, whenever they could, for as long as they could. They wouldn't break their tranquility for two men, criminals or not. _

_Hence the cashier not being scared of a strange man wearing an animated loli-pop._

_It was a long standing, unwritten, agreement. _

_As long as the Akatsuki left the village alone, The village left the Akatsuki alone. Neither side saw the other as a group of allies or enemies, mercenaries or not, the Akatsuki weren't expected to help Kusa in a time of crisis and Kusa wasn't expected to help Amegakure._

_"No," Deidara stopped for a moment before resuming his violent packing,"But we can't be too careful, hmm"_

_Madara couldn't argue with that. _

_The two packed quickly and after a few curses on Deidara's end -his hair got caught in the zipper of the bag- and a few tears shed on Madara's -parting is such sweet sorrow- they were off._

_Heading into the forest. _

_Which seemed to have gain a creepy factor since they first walked through it on the way here. The trees branches were now locked together, blocking out most of the sun light and there were no longer any birds chirping._

_It was dead quiet._

_Deidara stared at it with a bored expression for so long Tobi did a double take when he finally walked in._

_"W-wait sempai!," The masked ninja cried, running after him._

_The two wandered through the forest for a while, heading towards the high mountain standing proudly in the distance...Or at least that's where they seemed to be heading, every mile one of them *usually Tobi* would climb a tree to map out the route, but it seemed like no matter how long they walked they weren't going anywhere._

_Literally._

_The raven was so sure they were going around in circles that he started to randomly mark trees with a kunai._

_He eventually let it go when he was assured they weren't lost._

_This came in the form of a small, delapidated old two story house that looked like the entire structure would give if a single leaf landed on it._

_He was pretty sure he hadn't seen that before._

_Deidara walked up to it and opened the door._

_Madara grimaced, the blond wasn't thinking what Madara thought he was thinking, was he?_

_"Looks like this is the best we're going to find, yeah," The elder Uchiha sweated, he was, "But sempai," the masked ninja crept up beside the Iwa, he cupped a hand over his mouth to whisper, "It smells,"_

_It did, like an old dead rat in a sewer._

_Don't ask how he knew what that smelled like._

_"Would you rather go back to the village? yeah," Deidara asked in a suggestive tone._

_Tobi sighed, "No sempai," _

_The Iwa 'Humph'ed,"Go sit your ass down, hmm. I'll go see if I can find some futons or something," he said starting his assent up the stair case behind the front door._

_Madara shrugged and did as told, he headed into the living room, that smelled like a mold covered jock sock that had never been washed. Actually that's a pretty good way of describing how it looked too._

'It really does fucking stink in here doesn't it?,'

_Madara blinked, who the..._

_"Sempai!," he called._

_"What?~!," Deidara screamed back._

_"Tobi has a fever right?,"_

_"No shit, why do think you're dizzy all the time, yeah,"_

_"Can fevers make Tobi hallucinate?,"_

_"..." the blond didn't answer._

_'_You can take that as a yes,'

_0 0 0_

Now that Madara thought about it, that wasn't the first time he had a voice in his head. When he was young he would catch fevers frequently, most of them were mild, not raising above a few degrees.

But sometimes, they rose insanely high. It was one of those times, when he was lying in bed sweating and shivering at the same time, that the voice had spoken to him.

Even now he could remember that the voice sounded different, it had a deep timber and slow/even tempo (Like the lowest key on a Piano) that made thirty year old Madara's voice sound like Tobi, but slowly over time as the raven got older and his fever became few and far between, the voice became more and more pitched until eventually it just vanished.

It was like it had talked itself into nothingness.

That was over eighty five years ago.

'_How times flies,'_

"Tell me about it," Madara grunted.

**TBC**

**(1). Chocolate vine is a shrub native to China, Korea and Japan, it usually grows 10 meters or more in height and has compound leaves with round leaflets, it also has clusters of muddy pink colored flowers that smell like chocolate :D it has sausage shaped fruits that have an edible pulp -when they're ripe they're a bright purple color (or colour)- it has to be eaten like yogurt, slurp, slurp. Because of the seed that become bitter if they're chewed.**

**-_- this chapter is 3547 words, but there are more skips in it, **_**Damn.**_

**Lol the Squirrel bit was inspired by a real event, trust me you have not lived until you get chased by a mob of tree rats. Nya REVIEW PLEASE! or just fav and Story alert, I don't mind I'm not a review whore if a chapter's ever late it will never be because of the reviews or lack there of. Thank you for reading! JA NE~!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Why did cuddling puppies make my writing go all weird(er)? o_O Okay I swear on everything cute, fuzzy and/or Bishi, that this is only HALF filler, we finally make it to Konoha! 8D**

**Thankies: QueenofFanficworldlovegunner, Yuti-chan, Lycan723 and an annanymous (CFS), um gotta say, Pain/Dei, not really up **_**my**_** alley, but if you are you can go ask Stephfarrow she's good at that stuff :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto Masashi Kishimoto does!**

**Only 3,000 words T_T *sniff***

**0 0 0**

Madara hummed lightly to himself as he watched his reflection in the water of a clear flowing stream, behind him stood the two looming statues of the first hokage and himself. He pulled a loose string sticking out of the new 'half' mask he wore over the left side of his face taunt and slip-knotted the end.

After three hours of thinking and finally coming up with a less than solid game plan, He came to the obvious conclusion that his bright orange mask was too suspicious, and so was his cloak and ring. so he ended up mutilating a spare mask that he kept in his dimension, taking off his ring, wrapping the more important, small items in his cloak and leaving them in a good place. Beside the feet of his statue at the Valley of the End, as long as the cloak didn't somehow get dragged into the water he figured it would be fine, that's what he hoped anyway.

The feeling of the rain and wind hitting his face was so new and weird, that he thought up a plan B just in case he couldn't go through with this one.

How effective could this -he ran his hand over the smooth edge of where the mask and his met- be anyway? He still looked like an Uchiha -even though he deactivated his sharingan- and that was the problem.

He might be mistaken for Sasuke or Itachi or worse. That would hardly be a good thing.

His voice was the one that came up with the 'Cast a genjutsu on yourself so when other people see you you'll look different,' Madara figured it was worth a shot.

He hacked loudly into his hand, he wouldn't cast it right now though, later would be better. Preferably when his lung wasn't trying to crawl out of his body.

'_But what if we run into,'_

_"LATER!,"_

_'FINE! Kami calm down,'_

The Uchiha snorted, standing up and waving his hands to fling the water droplets off. Not that it would do any good considering it was still _raining_, but he did it anyway.

"OOOII! TOBI!," he blinked, that voice, he looked back over his shoulder.

In the distance, running towards him was a blue dot.

Actually, no, scratch that, slowly walking up to him with wide eyes was a blue shark man.

_'Same impact,'_

"Uh...Kid?," Kisame blinked at the sight of the mysteriously ninja's face and immediately felt a shiver go up his spine, he seemed familiar somehow, the pale skin, the black eye, like a ghost from the past, like... Itachi

Creepy.

"Kisame-sempai?," Madara said with surprise, not even caring that Kisame was gapping at his exposed skin.

'_Wonder what kind of mission brought big blue all the way out here,'_ The voice said.

Madara muttered a 'yeah' as he looked past the shark ninja, waiting to see the familiar blank expression toting face of his student, but it never came, it was just Kisame,"Kisame-sempai, where is Itachi?," he asked.

"H-he had to stay back at camp, he's been feeling a little weak lately," Kisame rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, a light purple tint on his cheeks, "I had to carry him to our rest spot after our mission,"

_'Seems little 'tachi isn't going to last much longer,'_

Madara agreed..

Itachi wasn't physically strong enough to fight off his illness, if it wasn't for the medication and his eagerness to prove something, there was no doubt he would've croaked years ago, and Madara counted his blessings every day that the young Uchiha hadn't.

Itachi had an amazing talent for planning and strategy, where one thing failed him always found a way to make up for it.

Like when he sought out the Nine Tails Jinchuuriki just after 'Tobi' joined the Akatsuki, that was little more than a back up plan just in case his illness took him before his brat Sasuke could watch him die and head back to Konoha a hero.

Madara used his ability, since he was the complete opposite of the young Uchiha, he tended to set a goal and just shoot for it until he hit it, if he happened to think of something that could easily get him to it then that was what he would go with. (A/N:Much like the authoress and her Porno-style pacing XD How does a Panda fit in? Panda handyman)

He rarely thought of plan B's, which was why he was so eager to have his current rescue mission strategy go smoothly.

If it didn't he'd finally know for sure if he should start taking tips from Itachi, the Uchiha pouted and crossed his arms, at that moment he completely forgot the Mist ninja was there and that he didn't have his full mask anymore, that meant the swordsman could see his pouting and glazed over eye.

Itachi was such a _boring _child. Always was, always has been. No sense of fun or adventure, he didn't even like finding pictures in the stars! Yes Madara liked laying on the grass and finding constellations, it was second best to inarizushi, third to sleeping.

It was a shame he hadn't been able to go shape hunting in a while, he really needed to get rid of that excess stress building up.

"Kid," Kisame's sudden voice snapped him out of his little expedition into monologue village, he noticed the blue mans hand was in his face,"You okay?," Kisame let it fall back to his side.

The Uchiha stared at him quietly for a second before beaming a bright smile,"Tobi's fine Kisa-sempai!,"

_'Yes but how is __**Madara**__?,'_

_"Shut. Up,"_

The Uchiha noticed the rogue mist shinobi glancing to the side back in the direction of the way he came,"Kisame-sempai has to leave now?," he asked in a sad 'Please don't leave me there are wolves', tone.

'_You have me,' _The voice said.

_"I hate you, I like Kisame,"_

_'Asshole,'_

Kisame chuckled lightly,"Yeah I do, Itachi asked me to bring some firewood back to camp over an hour ago,"

Tobi giggled, "'tachi's gonna be mad,"

Kisame waved his hand in dismissal,"Nah, he was almost asleep by the time I left," he frowned,"I will hurry though just in case,"

"Good luck Kisa-sempai!,"

"Thanks kid," Kisame chuckled at the ravens enthusiasm,"Good luck on your mission too,"

"Tobi doesn't need luck, Tobi has this," 'Tobi' tapped the side of his head.

The two said their ''fair wells'' and the ex-mist ninja was gone.

_'Blue seems pretty happy,'_ The voice said,_'He and 'tachi must be good friends,'_

Madara rolled his eye,"Please, Itachi is nothing but a selfish brat sometimes, I know it wasn't as easy getting him to stop and rest as Kisame made it sound," he said rubbing his cheek, he never had to actually smile when he acted like Tobi, his cheeks hurt.

'_First hand experience I assume?,'_

"Training accident when the brat was six," Itachi was talented, no doubt, but even a professional had to deal with the occasional mishap.

That particular day Itachi was in the old unused Uchiha training field not far from the estates main house, his father led him out there blind folded, handed him a giant knife the same length as his thin arm, put a chakra seal on him and told him to make it home before sunset or else he wouldn't get any dinner that night or the next.

Madara had watched his little descendant survey his surroundings, map out every little detail like a trained tracker ninja, work out where he was surprisingly fast and head home.

Only his father, being the cruel bastard he was, had set up a few ''obstacles'' for his son. Madara to this day didn't understand Fugaku's thinking at all.

One of the traps was a wire tripped kunai trap, there were only a couple and the firing mechanism made a grinding sound a good ten seconds after Itachi stepped on the heavy wire so he had no trouble dodging them.

The senbon trap however was a completely different story. It looked like rain there were so many needles and the trap itself was motion sensitive. poor kid never had a chance of getting out of that without a few ''battle scars''.

That was the one Madara didn't get, the Dick Uchiha himself wouldn't have been able to escape that, how could he think that a six year old could? Talented or not it didn't seem logical.

The elder planned on leaving the bleeding boy alone, he was keen on keeping his cover, but when Itachi started to quietly cry thinking he was going to die, he knew he wouldn't be able to.

Madara changed his appearance with a simple genjutsu and pretended to be a lost traveler. He ended up leading Itachi home by the sleeve of his shirt -since he almost racked the old man when he tried to pick him up- and left him at the front gate, making sure that Fugaku wasn't watching, the kid was pretty small, he needed all the food he could get.

Years later around the time Itachi became an ANBU, the prodigy fell out of a tree, that's right, the all mighty Itachi Uchiha fell out of a tree.

Madara didn't know why he fell, Itachi refused to tell him, pulling a kunai when the masked nin tried to push the issue.

Offering a hand to help him up and not mentioning said issue again was pushing it apparently.

Maybe the outburst was because the younger Uchiha practically hated his teacher with a passion only an Uchiha could understand or maybe he was just pissed at being thought of as weak. Either way, he ended up limping home by himself.

_'That was both long and boring,'_

Madara 'humphed',"Pft whatever," Like he actually cared what he thought about himself, he blinked, that didn't sound crazy at all.

_'Ah, you're like a broken record,' _The voice said spazztically,_ 'I don't miss Deidara, I don't care, I'm an impassive jerk off, oooooooooo,'_

Madara's expression hardened as he clenched his teeth and started walking, not thinking a single thought or showing that he heard his subconscious at all.

'_What you're just going to ignore me?,'_

_"..."_

_'You seriously want to do this? You're even more talkative than I am,'_

The Masked ninja simply grunted.

_'Fine then go for it, you'll crack soon enough,'_

_0 0 0_

_"Sempai," Deidara -who was sitting on the bank of a crystal clear river sculpting one of his little birdies- looked up at his partner -standing beside him- at the sound of the playful tone._

_"Hn?," he grunted with a bored expression._

_"Hold these for Tobi," The masked ninja tossed a roll of bloody bandages that smelled of sweat onto the blonds lap._

_Deidara picked the roll up with his finger nails, groaning in disgust,"UGH!," he tossed them into the water, they floated on the surface for a bit before sinking._

_"They're just off my forehead sempai," Tobi said chuckling._

_"O-oh," Deidara sighed in relief, "Thank Kami-sama," he didn't have to burn his cloak!_

_Tobi plopped down on the dirt beside his sempai and started to pull off his sandals._

_"What are you doing? yeah," _

_The masked ninja beamed,"Tobi's gonna catch some fish to eat!," he said, rolling up the legs of his sweats and lowering himself over the edge of the bank, he gazed over the sudden steep drop strait to the bottom._

_He could see catfish resting on top of the thick underwater plants. _

_Nice and plump, they would be great roasted over a fire with a few wild herbs and mushrooms._

_The Uchiha was almost drooling just thinking about it._

_"You could go back to the village, yeah, if you take off your cloak the ANBU wouldn't even suspect that you of all people were an Akatsuki," Deidara closed his eyes as he rested his cheek in the palm of his hand, his elbow propped up on his knee._

_"Tobi thinks Deidara-sempai is underestimating Tobi," Tobi pulled off his gloves, he balled them up and threw them randomly over his shoulder, not really caring where they landed._

_"Deidara thinks that Tobi deserves to be underestimated," the iwa peeked open his eye when he heard a splash, he sighed and shook his head._

_Madara swung his arms to push himself deeper into the water as he dived toward the bottom of the lake _

'And now we shall make many fishy friends, catch them with our bare hands and we'll spark up a fire with some flint and get to work! Did you sense the sarcasm there, cause I meant it,'

_If the sarcasm effected the Uchiha at all, he didn't show it. _

_Once at the bottom of the river Madara slipped the scarf from around his neck and tied one end onto a bulging tree root sticking out of the muck, he caught one foot under the root to keep himself from floating back towards the surface as he tied the other end around his free ankle. _

_The scarf and root acted as a chain and anchor, keeping Madara submerged but letting his hands stay free and open to catch whatever fish happened to swim by._

_Nothing to do but sit-well-float and wait._

_**TIME SKIP!**_

_Up on the bank Deidara was lazily watching the tall water reeds sway in the wind, he yawned and gazed over the edge of the shore, taking interest in the little turtle resting on a stone underwater, it hadn't moved a single time in the past thirty minutes. _

_He was starting to think it might've been dead._

_'_Don't turtles breath air?,'_ he thought curiously. His eyes widened for a moment. Tobi breaths air too. _

_When was the last time Tobi surfaced? How long has he been sitting here for? Thirty five minutes?_

_So Tobi's been under for...Thirty minutes?_

_Yup, Thirty._

_**Shit.**_

_He quickly stood, ignoring the sudden dizzy feeling as the blood drained from his head. Deidara unsnapped his cloak and pulled it off, letting it fall and crumple up wherever/however it wanted._

_He didn't care if it got wet or wrinkled, he didn't care if Konan stabbed him a million times over with those paper birds of hers, because nothing she could do to him could ever compare to what Pain would do to him if Tobi died._

_Seriously, Deidara happened to LIKE having skin. He thought it was his best feature, next to his hair of course, like a field of golden wheat (_A/N Woah, fangirl moment o.o)

_"TOBI!," He shouted, hesitantly putting a foot in the water, "TOBI!,"_

_"Sempai?," He flinched and looked over his shoulder._

_Tobi wasn't in the water. He wasn't dead, he wasn't drowning. _

_He had a string of fish thrown over his shoulder, one hand on his hip and he was almost completely dry._

_It looked like he'd been out of the water for at least twenty minutes._

"_Tobi? yeah," The Terrorist slowly sat down on the edge of the bank._

_"Why did sempai jump into the water?," he gasped playfully, squatting down beside the livid ninja, "Did sempai want to play with the fishies?," he asked._

_Deidara's shoulder sagged,"YOU'RE AN IDIOT!," his hand collided with the side of his partners head._

_"WHAA!," The masked ninja cried, falling to the ground, he dropped the line of fish to grasp his ringing ear._

_"You scared the crap out of me! hmm," Deidara said pulling his leg out the water to stand,"I thought you were-..." he trailed off._

_Tobi pulled his hand away as he tilted his head, "Sempai thought Tobi was what?,"_

_"Nevermind, yeah, it's nothing,"_

_The raven flinched away and dipped his head, expecting another blow._

_"Come on,"_

_He opened his eyes and stared at Deidara's outstretched hand,"Eh?,"_

_The blond scoffed,"What, you think I'm going to let you out of my sight after what you just pulled? yeah," he smirked, "If so, then you're an even bigger idiot than I thought,"_

_0 0 0_

In Konoha, Tsaunde, Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura and Shizune all stood in silence. The two chuunin Kotetsu and Izumo stood at the door with their heads down.

"I can't believe this," Tsunade breathed.

"They were all captains too," Kakashi shoved his hands into his pockets.

"There's only one person that could take out so many people at once," Only one person who could kill an army of ANBU.

Naruto's sad gaze dropped,"...I know,"

"Then you also know what must be done," A small nod was the lady Hokage's only response,"Call Yamato and Sai, you're mission is to find him," she said.

Sakura nodded,"Yes ma'am," She heard the fabric of Naruto's shirt crumple as Kakashi placed his hand on the young ninja's shoulder.

"I'm sorry Naruto,"

0 0 0

Somewhere outside of the village, creeping through the trees with his chakra masked, was Madara, his eye fixed on the ground below him. What was on the forest floor? None other than the entrance to underground prison, hidden within a genjutsu that only he (or a Hyuuga) could see through.

There were several guards, but most of them were stationary, either sitting on the ground playing Shougi or napping in one of the warm sun spots.

The few that were doing their jobs were the youngest of the bunch, the greenies, the rookies. The ones that wouldn't stand a chance in hell if someone like Madara attacked them.

Then again, none of the ANBU stood a chance against the Uchiha. They shouldn't feel bad about being weaklings.

Bugs, caught in a spiders web.

The elder leaned himself against the tree trunk, he wouldn't have to wait much longer for sunset. He figured that would be the perfect time to strike, right in between the twilight and the rising of the moon.

Quite symbolic if you really thought about it.

And he did, because he could. Madara hadn't heard a peep out of his subconscious in the past hour, was that good? Of course it was!

Silence, peace, valuable time to doze and day dream.

Though he knew he shouldn't get too used to having a quiet mind, the voice would break soon.

'_I know you're mad at me, but at least hear me out,' _What did he say?, _'I promise I won't bother you again,'_

Madara's eyes followed the guard as he passed, "Fine, make it quick,"

_'Fine then SHUT UP,'_ The voice barked back.

The Uchiha growled.

'_Isn't it annoying having me around? isn't it annoying having to look for Deidara? isn't it all just soooo Kami-damn annoying?,'_

The ninja blinked in a mix of surprise and confusion, '_You pretend to be serious, you pretend to be everything you say you are, you aren't Demon Eyes Madara anymore and soon enough you won't be Tobi either, so who will you be? Deidara will hate your guts when he find out you're an Uchiha,'_ Madara opened his mouth, _'I'm not done,' _he closed it.

'_He;ll hate you and he'll be hurt that you lied to him. Regardless of what you do or say or think ,you do love him,'_ The Uchiha watched his hand pick at the bark of the tree,_ 'No, watch the camp,'_ Madara obeyed.

'_Frightened men trying to convince themselves of their convictions, a frightened man, trying to convince himself, he's right,' _Madara started a retort but the voice continued,'_ You're a sad, bitter old man who can't run from his problem and is stuck between a rock and a hard place. You're a terrible person and a sad excuse of a warrior, for you life is all about winning, but it's the game that matters ,'_

The voice kept its word and went dead silent after that, though Madara was happy to finally have it gone and be able to pick up his pace, its words still faintly echoed. It was like his head had pushed out the little nuisance but it was still screaming.

What did it matter -_it didn't-_. There weren't any distractions, he was more then prepared to raid the base.

The Uchiha grinned, watching the guards leave as the shift changes began, "Here I come," in the end, it's the one who remains standing that is right.

**(WOOT! PLOT!)**

**TBC:**

**This Saturday is my birthday! :D I got a German Shepherd puppy, his name is either going to be Tobi or Hannibal XD. Thank you for reading please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**My Great grandmother passed away Monday night, she was 94 , and her funeral is tomorrow *sigh* :/ so please forgive me if this one really sucks -_- or in creepily obssessed anime fan talk Yashigani (Sub standard, terrible, unworthy of release)**

**Thankies: Yuti-chan, Queenoffanficworldlovegunner,Alex(dash)Loves(dash)her(dash)Louie, ( Lycan723, Amoria Mirai, Deiagotcha.**

**Blackcatgurl for an Unrelated fav.**

**Start!**

The crickets chirped serenely as twilight wavered on, everything would seem normal to an average person, but any ninja would have noticed that the underground prison was strangely void of life above the ground.

Not a single ANBU stood at a post. There weren't any sloshing footsteps, or laughing or snoring.

It was completely quiet.

Until the echoed ringing of a high pitched whine and cracking shook the ground.

Within the prison smoke filled the halls and a single ANBU with a broken mask scrambled through the haze barely managing to smack a red button on the far wall near the containment cells before a kunai wedged itself into his neck.

As he dropped to the ground and the smoke began to clear, Madara's figure appeared and loomed over the body, his red eye narrowed.

"I'm here for Deidara," He said, "And I'm not leaving until I find him,"

He bent over, grasping the ANBU's belt and ripping it off,"I'll be taking these," he said unlatching and twirling a key ring around his finger.

He didn't need them. It was just in case his arms decided to stop working. Like his leg had when he jumped out of the tree while launching his attack.

"Deidara!," he called taking off down the corridor in the opposite direction from which he entered. Passing rows upon rows of cells.

"Deidara!,"

Coming to a fork, he had to stop. Left or right? Highly dangerous criminal would probably be kept away from the others, he'd probably have his own cell.

Well if that wasn't a completely useless thought.

In the cell behind the Uchiha, the lucky prisoner -that had managed to not have his cell crushed by the exploding paper tag- inhabiting it watched in interest as Madara thought over which way he should go.

If he went the wrong direction it might take hours to realize it, Kami knows how many times the halls branch out into different halls, that branch out themselves.

This place was probably like one giant labyrinth.

"Hey buddy, you lookin' for somebody?," The prisoner finally spoke up.

Madara looked at him out of the corner of his eye, "No I've been yelling for the sake of bringing joy to you all," the sarcasm, the terrible word play, there was only one _thing_ that could and would do something like that.

_"What the hell was that?~!," _He inwardly hissed, the feeling of doom washing over him.

The voice _LEFT!_ it was gone, gone like dry dirt wherever Madara went.

_'A warm up and do you really think I'd leave you alone for good?,'_ The voice asked snarkily.

_"I was hoping!,"_

"Don't get snippy asshole, I can help you," The prisoner said glaring at the raven, his golden eyes cold.

"Exactly why should I listen to you?," Madara grumbled things under his breath, he liked it better when his subconscious was just a thoughtless nonexistent life form that helped him plan things and breath, this talking version is _SUCH _a drag.

"Well i don't see any back up, so it looks like I'm all you've got," The prisoner said, enunciating every word.

True enough.

"All you gotta do is open my cell,"

Madara thought it over, honestly the guy didn't look all that trustworthy, the parts of him he could see through the small barred window anyway, but still it was worth a shot,"Fine," The man grinned broadly, "But you tell me first," his grin was replaced by a scowl.

"No way, you could leave me in here to rot for all I know," he said, crossing his arms stubbornly.

The two stared each other down through the bars, finally the blue haired man sighed, "We do it at the same time," he reasoned with a wag of his finger.

Madara shrugged, good enough for him. He quickly sorted through the keys to find the one that belonged to that cell, all of them where numbered, making it a lot easier to do so.

When he was ready he put the key into the first lock of the double drop tumbler set (Fancy name for a mechanical lock :D) and looked to the prisoner expectantly.

"Go down the right hall and keep going strait until you reach a door," the blue haired man said, watching Madara turn the key slowly with every word he spoke,"You go through," he and the ninja both paused, the inmate's frown deepened, "And head down _that_ hall, the door is practically hidden in the dark so you'll have to feel around for it," He smirked as the key continued to turn,"A couple days ago the guards brought in a kid, had long blond hair, I'm pretty sure they tossed him in the Hole, I don't know how long it will take to get there since I haven't been down there myself," That was hardly believable, "But it probably won't take long, maybe half an hour if you don't get lost,"

Finally the first lock clicked as it was released and the stainless steel bars connecting it to the stone door frame retracted, "What did his face look like? His eyes?," Madara asked, shoving the other key into the second lock.

"His hair was in the way, sorry man," The Uchiha blew out roughly through his nose and began to turn the key quicker then he did last time, it clicked before the prisoner even managed to speak, but he wasn't going to let him out just yet so he jammed his foot up against the door keeping in place.

The Inmate pushed and rattled the heavy door,"I did happen to overhear the guard talking about what got him thrown in here, seems like he's quite the little pyromaniac, I don't wanna be a snitch, but I heard the guard beat the kid so bad he had to go to the infirmary, didn't see it myself though, probably just a rumor,"

None to pleased with the mans final statement Madara stepped back from the door, pulling it open by the barred window.

The blue haired man ran out the cell only managing to toss a few words over his shoulder, as he leaped through the massive hole at the end of the hall to his freedom. (Free as a bird dude)

"LATER MAN!," his voice echoed.

Right then, back to the task at hand.

_'Yeah later!,' _The voice called inside Madara's head, well it wasn't talking for him anymore, '_Ah he was nice, I hope we see him again, don't Maddie?,'_

Nerves pulling, straining. Madara turned away from the cell and started down the halls, trying to hurry before he forgot the way.

"_Yeah sure whatever, let's just go find Dei and get out,"_

'_Hey you're finally taking my advice! and here I thought you were ignoring me like the people reading this,'_ the voice laughed as Madara opened the first door.

_"I've listened to you since you showed up, it's your own fault for not having anything productive to say,"_

_'Not produc- Yeah like that time you bought 500 ryo worth of Inarizushi,'_

The candles on the walls were starting to become fewer and fewer, making the corridor more and more dim the further he walked.

_"Your point?,"_

_'You stole the money from Kakuzu, destroyed half the base when he started chasing you and ended up with a bad case of poison ivy, in a place no one wants it, because you had to eat in a bush, In what way is any of that productive?,'_

Fabric of dark gloves met stone as the Elder put a hand on the wall to help lead him through the almost pitch black space, _"I thought it was really productive at the time, you can't plan full scale world domination on an empty stomach,"_ he thought humorously.

He stopped when his hand grazed a firm handle shape.

_'Seriously though, just a cart full of inarizushi? How did you not get diabetes, eating all of that had to have raised your blood sugar,'_

_"I almost passed out,"_, Madara thought back with a chuckle, pulling on the handle.

_'That is not a good thing, I hope you know that,'_

The wall slowly cracked open letting out a little light into the dark abyss beyond the door.

Madara grunted, using his shoulder to shove the heavy obstacle out of his way and against the wall behind it.

He had expected another hallway, the door was so thick and it didn't have any holes or bars there was no reason for him to think it would lead directly to an almost completely blacked out cell, the only light sorce being a small half melted candle sitting in the wall behind a seal barrier.

He shifted his line of sight over to the right side of the room, to the makeshift stone ''bed'' where a blond haired figure lay facing the wall.

Madara grinned, the prisoner was right.

"Sempai!," he exclaimed excitedly in his Tobi voice.

"..." The man slowly turned over, "Who are you?," he asked in a gasp of surprise, slowly sitting up. As Madara stared he pushed his golden hair behind his ear, out of his muddy brown eyes and away from his blood stained face, making it cascade down his back and fall over the edge of the bed.

The Uchiha clenched his fists angrily down by his sides, "Who are you," he repeated.

Taking it as an actual question the man answered him, "I'm Nagi,"

_'Should have seen this coming,'_

_Flashback_

_Tobi ran a hand through his hair as minutes turned into hours and hours turned into even more hours, sitting in the dark, cold forest waiting for the group of ANBU that just appeared out of nowhere when they were returning to the forest house, to leave._

_Hours...It felt like hours anyway. Hell it felt they'd been sitting there for days. Maybe that was just Madara's gurgling stomach that made it feel like he'd been out there for so long. He __**was**__ starving and so was Deidara, but they couldn't even cook their fish because of the stupid ANBU._

_Pft, who the hell can see smoke at NIGHT. It were times like these that made Madara hate himself for even coming up with the idea for ANBU. They were nothing but nuisances now._

_slick, black cloaked, silent killing nuisances. Like Spiders. Madara hated spiders._

_As the masked ninja inwardly ranted Deidara was off in the corner, trying to resist the urge to shiver, simply tugging his cloak tighter around himself instead, he blew into his hands to ward off the numbness from the cold before tugging them into his sleeves._

_The blond snapped his fingers catching Tobi's huffy attention, he motioned up to the trees with his head and nodded, Tobi shook his head as he plopped down next to the iwa soundlessly._

_Deidara rolled his eyes "How long have we been sitting here?'' he mouthed._

_The masked ninja shrugged, hell if he knew, it felt like they'd been out there forever._

_The limbs creaked again before there was nothing but the sound of the wind and the two S-class criminals breathing._

_Deidara snorted, those stupid ANBU weren't fooling anybody, he knew they were still there. They'd just gone into stealth mode._

_with a yawn his eyes drooped and shifted over closer to Tobi, pressing his body against the raven's side._

_"Night dipshit," he whispered._

_Beneath his mask Madara blushed and looked away. Stupid kid._

0 0 0

"How could I have miscalculated?," Madara grumbled to himself, resting his hands in his hands as he sat on the ''bed'' next to Nagi, who had pressed himself into the corner furthest away from the ninja.

His very presence scared the poor blond, it didn't help that he was talking to himself like a crazy person.

'_You said it yourself you weren't one hundred percent sure Konoha captured him,'_ The voice pointed out.

"Yeah but-..."

'_Listen, he isn't here but that doesn't mean this was a wasted trip, if an Akatsuki was captured it would be kind of a big deal,'_

Madara paused in thought, "You think whatever base captured him sent word to the other bases,"

_'Technically I don't think that, you do, but yes,'_

Where would it be though? they wouldn't leave it IN the prison, that would be stupid.

'_This about people that let the Little Rascal's guard highly dangerous criminals? Man am I glad I came back to help you,'_

Madara chuckled lightly, '_Now I have a question,' _ his entire expression dropped into one of boredom as he shrugged, "_I don't have a choice even if I say no so, go ahead,"_ couldn't hurt anyway.

'_Would you rather have a dog for a leg or a monkey for an arm?,'_

It is a painful feeling, your IQ falling into the single digits.

**(A/N: Monkey arm :D)**

**0 0 0 **

In a forest clearing a little farther away from the village than before where the forty inmates of the ANBU underground prison, grouped together under the moon after being freed.

Most of them stood and watched a man with blue shoulder length hair -pulled back into low hanging pony tail- climb onto a boulder so he could look down on them.

The rest, sat off on the side, were still chained or had stocks on their heads or wrists. The only life that could survive in the dark confines of the earth. Insects Konoha tried to squash before they swarmed.

"My friends, I like you, was betrayed by Konoha," Yoshi spoke, "The very place I had eagerly risked my life to protect. Like you I was sent to be punished, under the jurisdiction of hypocritical old bags of bone and flesh, not worthy of being called scum, let alone '_Wise Elders'_,"

"My friends, we are a clenched fist around the handle of a dagger, ready to strike down anyone who is stupid enough to try and oppose us with our might. After enduring twenty years of wallowing in the darkness and filth backwash of Konoha, for us a single siege will not do, we need a complete take over! One not even veteran shinobi have ever seen! We are but a single group of men, prisoners locked out of sight," The men scowled," But I believe a single one of us is equal to a thousand of their forces,"

"We represent all those that Konoha have thrown away, labeling them as traitors, deserters, rogues,It is time for them to wake, to see those of us they sent screaming to the pits of hell the ones they left to rot in the ground, to see what they have turned us into," Yoshi exclaimed in a growling voice making the other ex-prisoners cheered loudly,"Let's drag them out of their cozy little homes and remind them that the world beyond their grand wall is dark and putrid, remind them what it is like to live in fear,"

"Tonight we rest, tomorrow we exact our revenge. Men," He smirked evily, "Let's bring them hell,"

**TBC**

***cuddles Tobi* Puppies make everything better :) **

**:(**

**Thank you for reading please review, favorite and all that good stuff! Bye!**


	6. Chapter 6

**The awesome peoples!: Yuti-chan, DragonFire44 and QueenOfFanFicWorldLoveGunner. and a super special thank you to FF, yes the site, because if it wasn't for them and their snazzy Delete Flame function, you guys would have never gotten this chapter, because I would have punched my computer. Right in its face!**

**I don't own Naruto Masashi kishimoto and Tvtokyo- SCREW IT! You guys already know!**

**Start!**

* * *

><p>Madara hummed lightly as he sauntered up to the village gate, his fingers interlocked behind his head, his visible eye was lazily drooped and there was a strange smile on his face. It wasn't sinister or happy, it wasn't evil or good.<p>

The empty smile had no purpose other than to fool the guards that calmly walked out of their little box, he pretended to ignore them and started to walk passed them.

"Hey, mister!," The Uchiha stopped.

Getting into the village was going to difficult, he had no passport, no not even a fake one, and he looked less like a trust worthy man and more like a crazed serial killer (He thought it was the half mask, the voice said it was the look of his face as a whole, just another thing they disagreed on.) so they wouldn't just excuse his lack of ID VIA Pick Pocket excuse.

Actually that was a good idea.

Just not for this scenario.

"You need a passport to enter this village," The one with poofy spiky hair said.

'_His hair looks soft,'_ The voice said dreamily.

The voice had been like that since Madara left the prison, he was guessing the voice was the nice kind of drunk. Drunk on what exactly? You have to ask the voice, Madara wishes you luck getting an answer because not even he could get one.

He tsked,"I do not have a passport, I am a simple traveler," he said, pitching his voice as much as his now sore voice would allow. It was far from Tobi's voice but it was still pretty young sounding.

It did not match his appearance.

That's what Izumo and Kotetsu thought anyway.

"The only way you are getting into this village is by getting passed through by the Hokage herself," The brow haired man said.

'_Oh, that's right your mortal enemies granddaughter is the hokage now,' _The voice laughed_,' Man you were screwed out of the job five times by people related in one way or another! You're life really does suck,'_

Now that Madara thought about it, how would the voice get drunk in there? and on what? Mind juice. These are the kind of things that goes through his mind now. Next thing you know he'll be sitting in a corner contemplating the meaning of string.

"Fine, then how do I get there," The Uchiha wanted to get his mind on something else as quickly as he could before that 'String' thing came to be.

The two guards cast a wary look to each other, passing a raised eyebrow back and forth, before Izumo coughed into his hand, putting on a professional attitude.

"Just follow me I will lead you there," he said waving a hand for Madara to follow him.

The raven shrugged and followed him.

Kotetsu watched his friend leave, "And I," he started loudly, "Will stay here alone," he rubbed the back of his head.

Flashback

_Tobi watched Deidara as he pulled the blanket of his futon over his head, trying to ignore his presence. For some reason it was harder than usual for the blond, he wasn't exactly _mad_ per-say, he was little bit but for the most part he was just annoyed._

_Annoyed at Tobi for scaring him and annoyed with himself for being scared._

_He should have known his partner was alright, Tobi never actually hurt himself._

_Surprising but true._

_"Is Deidara sempai mad at Tobi?," The masked ninja asked quietly._

_"Go away, hmm," Deidara's voice was muffled by the blankets._

_"Tobi didn't mean to make Deidara-sempai worry," Tobi was met by silence, "Tobi loves his sempai!," he fell into a crouch beside the bombers head, "But Tobi understands if Deidara hates Tobi,"_

_Deidara frowned, he sounded kind of sad._

_"Everyone hates Tobi," The masked ninja's voice slowly deepened with every word,"Everyone hates me," he let himself drop onto his backside, back pressed against the wall, "And that's how it has always been," he pulled his feet closer together._

_His mentality was still in Tobi mode, he had no idea that his voice had returned to its normal deep pitch._

_"So that's what you said, yeah," Deidara rolled over onto his back._

_"Huh?," 'Tobi' looked at him in confusion. He may have felt like a kicked dog, but he probably would have remembered saying what he just said..._

_What did he say again?_

_The blond snorted, "You talk in your sleep sometimes, one time you were grumbling something about everyone hating you,"_

'If you said that Kami knows what else you said,' _The voice mumbled._

"Not helping!" _Madara inwardly barked._

_"Is it true?," Deidara asked, pushed himself up so he was sitting beside Tobi._

_'Tobi' slowly nodded, "Um, if sempai doesn't mind Tobi asking, what else does Tobi say when he's asleep?,"_

_"Not much, yeah, most of the time I can barely make it out," The bomber shrugged before pausing for a second,"Who is Izuna? hmm,"_

_Aw shit._

_"He was Tobi's younger brother," _

_"Was?," _

_"He died...A long time ago," 'Tobi' said, fiddling with the strap on his sandal._

_"I'd like to say I'm sorry but I have no idea what that's like. I don't have any siblings, my parents died when I was still young, hmm, so I didn't feel the loss or whatever it is you're supposed to feel," Deidara let out a yawn,"That was more Danna's category, he always went on these long tirades about his parents leaving him," he said as he stretched._

_"But I believe, that it makes no sense to cry and get angry when someone close to you dies, the fleeting moments of life is what makes it beautiful, hmm,"_

_'Tobi' thought for a moment, "The world is not beautiful and therefore it is," Izuna said that._

_The terrorist chuckled,"Danna, never understood true art. Never would have thought you did, yeah," _

_'Tobi' grasped his arm and pulled him over so Dei was lying on his lap, "I do,"_

_The young ninja stared up with wide eyes of surprise as the mask was lifted._

_He understood._

_His lips softly brushed over the smaller boys._

_Like how a painting understands the fire that turns its colors black._

(Wft was that? O.o)

_'That was kind of deep man,'_ The voice said slowly.

Deep, Madara chuckled, such a shallow word. There was a lot of irony in that.

He could remember just how close he'd come.

Just inches.

But he couldn't do it.

Reminiscing on a past moment.

Damn, he really was acting like a woman.

A powerful gust of air was pushed through the village paths and a cloud of dust was pushed into the air, mixing with the sprinkling rain, coating everything in a small thin streams of mud.

"Shit!," Izumo cursed, turning back just in time to see a flicker of red and a section of the stone wall surrounding the village collapse,"Stay here!," he ordered taking off back toward the gate.

No doubt to check on his friend.

_'I like that guy, he is pretty,'_

Madara let the disturbed feeling follow him up the stairs. It looked the same as when it was built, if the files room was in the same place he could just teleport there. The Elder sensed for any oncoming 'enemies' before his mask fanned out and swallowed him.

When he re-entered the outside world he was in a dark room, he fumbled around, kicking a table as he searched for a light switch. Finally his hand flicked the switch and the room was suddenly full of bright light, making him blink to ward off the spots dancing in his vision.

He took in the room and sweated at the sight of files strewn around the room, some in piles on tables, some on the floor, a few papers were tacked up on the blue walls. Though you could barely tell the walls were colored at all, there were so many papers that they acted as wallpaper.

It was also strangely quiet in here, he strained his ears but could barely make out the sounds of the events going on outside. He knew he wasn't far inside the building, probably just a few doors down from the Hokage's office.

Hmm, he wondered.

_"Yes, m'lady!,"_

"Hn?," he turned his head in the direction of the faint, hallow sounding voice.

'_Super secret ninja eavesdropping technique!,'_ the voice exclaimed, as Madara spotted a small vent shaft and climbed on the wooden chair set below it.

_"SH!,"_ he inwardly hissed.

He couldn't hear when the voice talked, it was too distracting, he wasn't a multitasker.

_'Don't shush me they can't hear me dumbass, remember,'_

_"SH!,"_

_'Oh I get it you-,'_

_"SH!,"_

Tsunade looked over the team of teens and their two elder Jounin teachers, "Sai I want you at the gate now!," She yelled

The door to the room slammed open without warning, shock showing on every ones faces as they turned to see a panting Shizune standing in the doorway and a just as winded TonTon pitifully oinking at her feet.

_Madara flinched at the sound of the door hitting the wall, he wasn't prepared for that._

The medic exclaimed, "The prison has been raided!," The medic exclaimed.

_Madara rubbed his ear, he didn't expect that either._

_The voice tsk'd, 'You put your ear on the vent,'_

The ninja's eyes widened as Shizune continued,"The guards stationed at the prison are all dead, the prisoners escaped and are already in the village, based on what the tracker ninja said they've been free at least sixteen hours,"

The lady Hokage's eyes narrowed as she rose to her feet,"Gather all the available ninja in the village, try to call back as many as you can," She commanded, "Do you have any ideas as to who is leading the attack?," she asked seeing various sections of the wall tumble.

The prisoners were S-class criminals, extremely strong, but the Genjutsu placed on the prisons only entrance and exit would have prevented them from getting out, even if they blew the entire underground complex sky high, the inner walls were constructed not to give way.

The outer walls however were a completely different story.

"We think the same ninja that attacked the ANBU in Kusagakure was the same person that just attacked the prison, the way the guards were killed is almost completely the same," Shizune said, picking up TonTon.

"Granny, does this mean?," Naruto asked with a hopeful smile, seemingly forgetting the current threat.

Tsunade walked over to the window, her hands latched behind her back,"It doesn't completely rule him out but it does give us reasonable doubt,"

"Ma'am, the one leading them, It's Yoshi Akamamura," The older ninja's expressions went serious.

"I don't get it, who is Yoshi Akamamura?," Naruto asked. He didn't get it and neither did Sakura.

Down in the village the prisoners filed in over the stone rubble, scattering in different directions after fleeing villagers.

_"He was an ANBU once, A very skilled one, he was a friend of my fathers,"_

_"The White fang?,"_

Yoshi calmly strolled through the street, blood mixed with rain stained his red prison rags.

_"Yes. After my father died Yoshi changed, he killed his troupe while on a mission, returned to village and under the dark of night to assassinate Council Member Koharu Utatane with his special technique," _

He whistled a happy tune as he headed toward the Hokage's mansion.

_"Obviously he failed and I was sent out to capture him,"_

_"How did you catch him?,"_

_"He gave himself up, said the village already killed my father and that he wouldn't be able to handle killing me,"_

A cruel smirk stretched across his face.

Naruto crossed his arms, "He doesn't sound like much of a threat," he grumbled.

The sounds of the final sections of the wall coming down and flattening whatever buildings and people that were in its path made Yamato shake his head.

"You were saying?,"

Tsunade dropped her head into her hands as the villagers scrambled toward the center of the village with the prisoners calmly watching from the rooftops.

They were like pigs surrounded by starving dogs.

...

The room suddenly went silent with the sound of the door lock clicking, Madara stepped down off the chair.

'T_ime to get to work,'_

Yes, the elder watched a pile of files tip over and scatter across the floor, but where to start?

* * *

><p>SKIP!<p>

Madara scowled as he flipped open the final blue folder, thumbing through the pictures to the very end, where a list of names were stapled to the stiff board, he snapped the file shut.

"I don't understand," He tossed it onto the table in front of him before sliding down into his chair,"How can this be?," he asked himself.

There were no files on Deidara, not a _SINGLE_ one.

None that mentioned his capture, none that mentioned if he'd even been in the hands of the ANBU _EVER_!

And believe him, he looked.

He even checked the Bingo Book, the only info on Deidara hadn't been updated since his last birthday. Which was what, four months ago? Maybe five?

Madara was seriously starting to reconsider the idea that had been captured at all, there wasn't any evidence to back that theory up anymore, not that there was much to go on to begin with.

So where was Deidara?

Suddenly the entire building shook as it was bombarded by explosives, the prisoners were finally making their move, tiles fell off the ceiling, the hanging light fixture swung, but Madara found himself frozen in his seat.

'_This place is ready to come down, we have to go!,'_

"But-," There had to be something here, _ANYTHING._ He couldn't face that he went on a wild goose chase to the very place he wished to send to the pits of hell.

'_No buts! We will never find Dei if we're buried under rubble!,'_

It had a point, sitting here wasn't going to find Deidara. Staying in this village wasn't either.

This village, the vain of his existence, he wasted so much time coming here and what was he rewarded with? Nothing. A big giant glob of nothingness topped with stress.

It deserved all the chaos that befell it and so did the people that lived here. Poor, mindless sheep that jumped off the cliff when one of them fell.

Enough with the ranting, that's all he has done since Deidara went missing. It was time to listen to the voice.

'_Damn right it is,'_

Madara teleported out of the room and all the way back to the house in Kusa's forest.

The bodies of the ANBU were gone, all that was left were pieces of their uniforms, the rain had washed away the traces of blood.

He looked up to the leaning shack.

It was time to focus on Deidara and only that. It was his mission now, to hell with the info on the remaining tailed beasts, to hell with the Moons Eye plan. It could wait.

Now came the big question and the true problem.

Where was he supposed to go now? he went to Konoha with a lead.

ANBU.

He didn't have that anymore, he didn't have anything. The best he could do is flip a coin every time he came to a fork in the road, it would be more about as useful as wandering around the entire world aimlessly.

Even if he searched the house, it was unlikely there would be any 'clues' he could go on.

His head suddenly began to spin, his vision became blurry, the mixture made his stomach wretch.

"Tobi?,"

**TBC!**

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><p><strong>2582 words! I stayed over 2500!<strong>

**It's raining. Rain, sleepy *snore***

**Thank you for reading! Please review, favorite and all that good stuff!**


	7. Chapter 7

**I thought playing LA Noire might help me think of something to write, but all it did was turn my seven days into three T_T XD**

**Thankies: Yuti-chan, QueenOfFanficWorldLoveGunner, Nendo Tenshi and DragonFire44. Alix117 for an unrelated fav.**

**I don't own Naruto Masashi Kishimoto and TvTokyo do!**

**2641 words!~**

**0 0 0**

"Tobi?,"

'_Oh hell no,'_ The voice said as Madara realized he recognized the voice and all the rage that sat still in his body started to simmer.

"Sempai?," He asked looking back to see the dripping wet features of the blond standing behind him.

Murphy's law has strapped itself to Madara's back apparently.

Deidara looked equally surprised,"Tobi," he blinked, "What are you doing here?,"

"_Me?_ ," Madara stressed,"What are you doing here?,"

"I was looking for _you_!," They answered together.

Their eyes were glued on each other as everything went silent. The older ninja looked at the younger with distain (Spell check is bitch!), hatred and hurt, while the younger stared at the elder in confusion.

Finally Deidara broke the awkward air with a heavy sigh, "Let's sit down and I'll explain everything, yeah," he said calmly.

"Sit...Down," Madara growled through his teeth as his jaw locked tightly. His bretah became ragged as he tried to hold in his fury.

But it was no use, his vision went red and when it cleared he had Deidara pinned against a tree by his thin neck.

"I should kill you for all you've put me through," the Uchiha said.

He felt the blonds fragile windpipe constrict as he clenched his hand, his nails cut through the fabric of his gloves and into the tanned skin.

The blond clawed at his hand, wet croaking sounds escaped his throat. He was trying to breath, but he couldn't. He was to talk, but he couldn't.

Madara pressed harder, waiting for the boy in his hands to go limp.

To just die.

"Tobi," Deidara finally worked out.

The elders eyes widened, coming back to his senses and his anger fueled high.

'_Snap out of it!,'_ The voice screamed.

Madara blinked and in that second the scene returned to normal, there was no blood, no body, no wheezing.

Deidara was staring up at him, perfectly fine.

Madara hadn't laid a finger on the Iwa, It was nothing but a hallucination, an incredibly vivid hallucination.

"Did you hear me Tobi? yeah,"

"Yeah, sit down," Madara slowly sat. Deidara did the same.

'_Kami man, what the hell was that?,'_

Honestly, Madara had no idea. He knew he had a temper but that was pushing his usual boundary, he was turning into Deidara, the one not willing to apologize or listen to his partner.

Not the one sitting next to him now.

"Where to start? hmm," Deidara asked him self sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head.

"How about the beginning," The Uchiha stated simply.

"Oh, right, yeah,"

They talked for a while, in that time Deidara explained everything, well, everything that happened on his end. While Madara on the other hand sat completely quiet. Astonished that he hadn't actually killed the blond in the time he'd been talking.

Believe him he did. Half of him did at least, the other half was still trying to make sense of everything.

So it wasn't really a talk but more like a very long story with a few unspoken death threats and the occasional comment from the only person listening, who just so happened to be an Uchiha, just so happened to have a very unique sharingan and just so happened to be boiling in his skin.

Both metaphorically and literally as he felt his fever return.

After about an hour, Deidara's story was finished. The two criminal ninja sat in silence for a while, Madara's blank gaze sayin he was trying to let the information sink in.

Sinking.

Thinking.

...Nope, it still did not make sense.

Madara shook his head, he was just going to make it easy on himself and save himself the thinking,"So you weren't captured by ANBU?," he asked bluntly.

"No, yeah, no!," Deidara quickly corrected himself.

Madara would have sweated if the heat coming off his body wouldn't have turned the drop into a tiny cloud that hovered just above his head.

"But, why did you run away? why didn't you just go to the village?," he asked.

"I figured there would be ANBU there too," Deidara shrugged nonchalantly.

The tiny cloud sweated in Madara's stead.

"So you just ran off without telling me, for the second time and i ended up compromising the mission and my plans because you're a selfish asshole that can't write a note or use his ring!," Madara yelled as he stood up. Trying to use his height as to his advantage to threaten the blond.

Deidara scoffed in disbelief, he wasn't selfish, yeah he was an asshole even he admitted that, but he was hardly selfish, "I lost my ring, even if I hadn't I wasn't worr-," the Uchiha raised a hand,"Shut up," he said so seriously the younger ninja had no choice but to close his mouth,"You may not have been worried about me but I sure as hell worried about you!,"

Deidara shook his head slightly,"Tobi-,"

"I've walked around in the rain for days!,"

"To-,"

"I can barely see strait!,"

'_You destroyed a perfectly good mask,'_

"I destroyed a perfectly good mask," Madara waved his arms,"And for what? For a snotty little kid that didn't even care enough about his own partner to spend the time, writing a simple note,"

Deidara looked down.

"Did you know that there's this little voice in my head that nagged and nagged me, telling me I was worried?," Madara pointed to his head.

_'I'm not just a voice remember ,I am your conscience,'_

"My conscience...Kept telling me, I was worried," he paused, "Oooohh,"

The voice hummed in an 'You finally get it' tone.

"Tobi, I'm sorry," Deidara said, sincerity in his voice,"I really am,"

"Hush Deidara, I don't want to hear it, I'm already pissed off enough if you say the wrong thing Kami knows what I will do so, hush," Madara huffed, turning away,"I'll go inside and grab the bandages and stuff I left here last time, you stay here," He said noticing the terrorist start to stand,"I'm sure you're arm is hurting,"

Deidara nodded.

'_If it's any consolation wearing our mask like this gave us a nice sunkissed look,'_ The voice said as they approached the house.

Does sunburned mean sunkissed?

_"Hn,"_

**Skippy!**

"Let me see!," Madara yelled as he tried to pry Deidara's hands off the old bandages on his arm.

"NO!," Deidara yelled back, struggling to pull his arm under himself as he crouched over.

"Damn it you brat let me see!," The Uchiha tried to trip the blond but Deidara just collapsed over onto his arm, hiding his arm completely. Madara almost, almost gave up. But he was too ticked off to just let it go, he worked hard to find Deidara and damnit if an infection was going to make him feel even worse about himself.

Travel to ends of the earth and back, release and raid a prison putting his own safety on the line only to come back to a run down old hobble and have Deidara waiting for him. .

He was going to fuck that infection _UP_. (He's turned into Eminem)

He.

Was.

Going.

To.

_WIN._

"NO!," the bomber cried as he felt Madara grip his hair with one hand and the upper part of his good arm with the other to hoist Deidara to his feet,"And I'm not a brat!,"

Madara hoisted him over onto his shoulder,"You're acting like one," he said, feeling the blond pound on his back with his good hand closed into a fist.

Yes -Madara 'Hn'd'- this was much better.

"Am not!," Deidara retorted.

"Yes you are, You're acting completely out of sorts," The Uchiha said calmly.

What was wrong with Deidara, he really was acting strangely. Madara seriously doubted this sudden personality change had anything to do with Dei actually feeling bad for making the raven worry.

He was just freaking out for some unknown reason.

_'I don't care why he's acting like this all I know is that I want it to stop,' _Finally something the Uchiha and his conscience agreed on.

Madara knew that he should take that as a bad omen or something.

Deidara suddenly froze, his entire body going rigid.

"What happened did you hit your head or something?," They were standing close to a tree and the Iwa's face was just a couple feet away.

hmm, could the personality change be from brain damage? maybe he fell out of a tree or something.

"No, yeah,"

Kami, mood swings much.

"Please put me down, hmm,"

Madara slowly set Deidara back down on his feet

"..." The blond fell into a sitting position, a surprised expression on his face.

"You okay?,"

Deidara slowly nodded.

Oh great what was wrong now.

'_He finally got it,'_ The voice said with a slight chuckle.

_"Got what?,"_

_'Dark eyes, fair skin, black hair, horrible temper, that HN thing,'_

_"..."_ Madara didn't get it at first.

_'He figured out you're an Uchiha dumbass,'_

Ooooh.

Uh oh.

The elder crouched in front of Deidara, laying his arms on across his legs.

Deidara stared,"So...You're an _Uchiha_, huh?,"

'_I told you,'_

Should he say yes? He didn't seem upset, which was surprising. Or should he say no and just play off his looks? ...

*sigh*

"Yeah," Madara looked away.

The voice laughed mockingly, '_Haha, here it comes,'_

The blond snapped his fingers,"I knew it, yeah,"

'_Huh?,'_

Madara blinked,"What?,"

"I don't know why but I always thought there was something more to you," Deidara explained with a calm shrug,"The thought of you being an Uchiha went through my mind, it was after the first time you got hit by my art, yeah,"

"So you're not mad?," Madara asked slowly.

Deidara shook his head,"I am still curious about the mask though, hmm," he said with a smile.

'_I don't like this,'_ Yet another thing Madara and the voice agreed on. Wow two in one day, hell must be pretty frosty by now.

"We should go," Madara said, trying to rid himself of the awkward feeling he got seeing Dei actually _happy_ for once, it just didn't seem natural for him to laugh or smile when he wasn't inflicting pain on someone,"This place was targeted once, I know another place not far from here," The Uchiha reached out a hand to Deidara as he stood, "It's at the base of Rikudo falls,"

"If you thinks it's best," Deidara said simply.

It was going to take a while for Madara to get used to that.

0 0 0

"Ugh," Deidara scrunched his nose in distaste as he and the elder approached the shack.

Madara chuckled,"I know, it's pretty crappy," falling back behind his partner who approached the door.

"It's a little better than the place we just left, yeah," The top hinge on the door creaked loudly before jamming after the door was pushed halfway open, "But only barely," Deidara grumbled.

The two entered the house with the Uchiha leading the way to the bedroom he had bunked down in last time, the blond grunted, irritated at the single bed.

"Are there any other rooms in the house? hmm," He asked raising an eyebrow.

Madara held back a sigh. He knew it wasn't the biggest bed in the shinobi nations but there was still plenty of stretching room, one of them might hit the other in the face by accident if they stretched outwards but as long as they stayed laying strait it would be fine.

"Dunno, all I did last time I was here was sleep,"

"I think I'll go check out the rest of the house, hmm," Deidara said slowly.

Madara nodded and watched the bomber leave, he sat on the bed and lazily looked up at the ceiling.

Oddly enough there wasn't any leaks, given the holes in the roof that you could see outside the house. It wasn't like he was complaining though, he was still beyond pissed at Deidara (he had no idea how long he would be like that) and he seemed to feel worse now than before Deidara found him.

It was an odd thing.

'_Maybe Dei's making you sick,'_ The voice said.

Yes and maybe goats can climb trees.

Madara sat there for a few minutes before Deidara walked back into the room with a disgruntled look on his face and his hands on his hips,"There aren't any more bedrooms, couldn't even find a futon, yeah,"

"Guess we'll have to share," The Uchiha said as lied back in the bed with his arms folded under his head, he looked over at Deidara, "Unless you want to sleep on the floor," he said suggestively.

"Why can't you sleep on the floor?~!," Deidara yelled.

Ah, so he wasn't completely different.

"Because you owe me,"

"Fine, we'll share, yeah,"

And the new Dei is back. Madara snorted, closing his eyes. he listened to the Iwa walk around the room for a bit, hmm walking, it was more like shuffling. Very slow shuffling.

Very slow shuffling that sounded like it was becoming quieter and quieter. Madara's eye brows furrowed, suddenly the bed dipped near his head.

"OW!,"

Madara's eyes snapped open at the sound of the yelp.

Deidara grinned sheepishly down at him, half sitting on the bed, "Hit my arm, hmm," he said swinging his legs up

Madara shook his head while the voice hummed a melody to try and block out the creepy feeling.

The blond laid on his back, "The day after tomorrow we should head to Kusa, yeah," he rolled over onto his side.

Madara nodded, that was a good plan, it would give the ANBU more reason to leave if they didn't show their faces a for bit.

Soon Deidara was out like a light and Madara was left to stare at the ceiling alone.

He listened to rain and Deidara deep breathing, willing himself to fall asleep.

Honestly, he didn't want to sleep, he was worried that if he did he'd wake up and this whole experience would repeat itself. Just an endless cycle of Searching and feeling more and more like crap each day.

But he needed to rest, he knew it.

"_Hey,"_ Madara thought.

_'What?,'_ The voice yawned.

There was something plaguing the Uchiha, something besides the usual,_"I've been wondering...Do you have a name?,"_ Yeah it was random but he was curious.

_'I am just a figment of your imagination, so no, you can name me if you want though,'_

_"How about TaiTai?,"_

The voice went quiet before laughing madly, '_You know it's those naming skills that make me glad you forced out all memories of your kids,' _His laughter died down,_'Night fruit pie,'_

0 0 0

In Konoha, prisoners lined the streets, hid within every crevice, and every ally. They circled the small group of villagers, who had huddled together.

The escape`e's that weren't looking for people were having their fun destroying parts of the village with Lava, wind and lightning Jutsu's. They were doing even more damage than Orochimaru had years before, that was saying a lot.

The villagers that had manage to avoid being caught were racing toward the downed wall, trying to climb over the debris and large piles of stone.

"What are you doing?~!," Tsunade screamed from the top of an apartment building next to them,"Where is your pride as leaf villagers?~!,"

"We killed it," Tsunade turned to see Yoshi standing behind her with his hands in shoved in the pockets of his prison rags and a sinister smirk on his face.

"Yoshi," The Hokage growled.

The blue haired man lifted his hands, placing them a foot apart,"Show me the will of fire Tsunade," the space between his hands sparked with lightning.

**TBC**

**Yay Dei-Dei's back! :D and Madara's got a thousand years of blood lust. I know what you're thinking, what it is already over? the answer is, Not by a long shot. If anything this is just a bump in the plot, there will be more chapters! Now, I just have to think of what happens next, which means there might not be a chapter next week, don't hold me to that though XD**

**Mada: Her planning skills suck.**

**Says the guy who can't follow his own master plan.**


	8. Chapter 8

_Until furthur notice I have disabled the Anonymous reviews, just to keep the hecklers away from my 'Shit-shots'. I'm a little sad because this chapter was going to be a fluff basket but it just vanished._

**Thankies: Yuti-chan, QueenOfFanFicWorldLoveGunner, and anybody who favorited because I'm sure I am missing someone. **

**I love your faces! all of you, even people who don't do anything but read every week!**

**Nope RDBA still doesn't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto and TvTokyo do though :)**

* * *

><p><strong>0 0 0<strong>

It had been almost two weeks since they first ''moved'' into the old shack and nothing had really changed, Deidara was still acting happy which TaiTai had dubbed 'Super FC Mode' , Madara was slowly coming down from his rage high but the gruesome hallucinations (which he thought would be a one time thing) weren't going away. If anything they seemed to be getting more and more frequent.

Each being more grotesk than the last. All of them including murdering Deidara or watching him die.

The worst part was that the more common they were becoming the more they showed up in Madara's dreams.

Said Uchiha turned over in the bed, for what seemed like the fifteenth time that hour. He flinched in his sleep as sweat ran down his face. His eyebrows furrowed and he grumbled something under his breath.

* * *

><p><em>A barren landscape, with black contrasts, clear glass weeds cover the ground, he could feel a hot breath down his neck, making his hair stand on end.<em>

_The birds in the sky hovered next to the moon, weightlessly, frozen in time._

_A shadow and its stead, a large boulder standing in his path. A figured standing a top it. Looking down._

_No, it isn't looking, it isn't standing.i t is crouching, leanedover the hilt of a long bladed sword stabbed into the earth out of Madara's sight._

_Its head nods._

_The glow of the sharingan within the reveal-_

* * *

><p>Finally made the nightmare break.<p>

Madara flinched himself awake, his breathing fast and harsh, he sighed ad he placed the back of his fist on his forehead to wipe the sweat.

He wasn't safe anywhere anymore.

The Uchiha felt the blanket covering him pull and the bed shift as Deidara partially rolled over, he quickly brought his hand back down to his side and twisted his head to look away.

"Tobi?," he heard the blond asked tiredly, when he recieved no answer Deidara shrugged and rolled back over.

And so continued the long marathon of staring at the ceiling until sun up.

* * *

><p>Like usual with the sun rose Deidara with a high stretch and a yawn and like had been usual since he and Dei found each other again, Madara had barely gotten any sleep.<p>

It took even longer for sunrise so he figured he must have gotten thirty minutes of sleep(**1)** at the minimum, since it was around midnight when he went to bed.

The door clicked shut as Deidara left to go prepare ''breakfast'' (if a bowl of rice counted as such) the raven swung his leg which dangled over the edge of the bed for a few minutes, he heard the front door open..

Deidara was getting water.

Thunder rolled.

He heard the door shut and a few moments later the distinct smell of burning wood drifted through the house quickly followed by the _clank_ of a iron cast pot being placed on a metal screen.

Just a few more minutes, he'd go down when it was almost done.

Like he always did.

For the half an hour he was up there he was dozing in and out of consciousness, then with a growl of annoyance he finally got up.

Down stairs Deidara crouched beside a makeshift 'stove' made of a few different non flammable things Tobi had dug up and patched together, it wasn't the best but it wasn't that bad either.

It worked.

He didn't acknowledge his partner when he heard him walk up behind him to look over his shoulder like he'd done every morning.

"Don't forget to stir it," The younger ninja rolled his eyes.

"I know,"

Madara placed his hands on his hips as he continued to watched the rolling water.

'_Dude,' _TaiTai yawned ,_'Rice again?,'_

The Uchiha clicked his tongue, earning a tilted look from Deidara. What did Tai expect? it was all they had to eat. It was going to end soon anyway, the stupid voice could live one more day without a real meal.

"So about last night," Deidara trailed off suggestively.

"Hn?,"

"You were screaming, hmm," The Iwa stirred the rice before giving a satisfied grin and grabbing one of the faded glass bowls on the floor next to his leg.

'_Yay, it is done, whoopie, yes, ahar, hucks, fin...Fucking rice,'_

Madara raised his hands ''Tobi'' style, "What's sempai talking about? Tobi slept all night, Tobi thinks Sempai was just dreaming," Speaking in third person was a tell.

It was a tell of all tells, he had a terrible poker persona.

Fucking Tobi.

'_Don't blame the ants for the ham on the doorstep,'_ Tai chirped.

Deidara glared.

"It was just a bad dream, there was nothing that could've been done to stop it,"

"Must have been a pretty bad nightmare to have an Uchiha shaking in his boots, yeah," The blond shoved the bowl into his hands as he walked passed, "That's literal by the way,"

Madara less than gracefully slammed his shoulder on the narrow door frame as he turned to follow his partner. He cursed under his breath all the way to his seat on the floor in the empty front room.

Sitting in the dark, with nothing but the sound of the rain and the delicate sounds of the wooden chopsticks hitting the sides of the mismatched, chipped bowls.

TaiTai grumbling a few fucks and what he claimed to be ''voodoo'' hexes -yeah right-.

A less than normal yet somehow familiar morning.

"You know I've been wondering, yeah," Deidara stated using his chop-sticks to try and balance a single grain of rice on top of the pile,"Where is your ring and cloak?," he stabbed the highest point to pick up a mound of the sticky white food.

Madara paused as he was about to take a bite, he already told Dei about the mask thing -on the blonds orders of course- but had completely forgotten about his cloak and ring up until this point.

He could already hear Pain and Konan whining about it.

"I stashed them in Konoha and forgot," He finally answered with a dip of his head, he placed his bowl on the wooden planking.

"Won't Leader be pissed you haven't reported in yet? hmm,"

_'He is probably as red as a tea kettle,'_ The elder shushed Tai quickly, "No, we still have a month before we are expected to report in," he answered a little unsurely.

That was _probably _right.

Right?

'_Sure, why the hell not, it isn't like he can punish you or anything, you are the real boss, the head honcho, the alpha wolf, the-Shit what else is there,'_ As Tai tried to think of more leadership titles Madara finally got back to his rice.

Ah yes, yes, he was the leader.

What he says goes.

Then it was back to the silence, the time for thinking. His mind wandered from random thought to random thought, letting it self go gooey. It was important to think about nothing, it was a good thing.

Sadly it seemed the days 'Thinking about nothing' would run a little short, just like his sleep schedule, when he remembered that later on that day he and Dei would be heading for Kusa.

Again.

Madara was getting sick of hearing about it and he was the one always mentioning it!

The plan was to go to the village, it seemed simple enough. But Dei didn't have any clay and Madara didn't think he could teleport them to the village, not with how he was feeling.

Tired and in pain.

So much pain.

It would be like trying to stuff a whole cake down your throat when you're already full.

Which obviously meant they would have to walk.

Honestly Madara didn't want to walk all the way to the village, firstly he didn't feel like walking **anywhere **and second he didn't want to leave this place. Yes they were out of food and there wasn't any electricity or running water ,but it was quiet and peaceful.

He really did like it here.

Living here...

At that moment the masked ninja got an idea.

"Hey Sempai?,"

Deidara gave a small grunt in reply.

"Do you think I could run an idea past you?,"

The Iwa rose an brow.

**0 0 0**

Pain stepped out onto his usual perch over looking the village with a small splash as his sandal squashed a puddle. Behind him Itachi and Konan stood out of the rain with serious expression on their faces.

"Do you think it has finally happened?," Konan asked in a small voice.

Itachi's shoulders bobbed as he scoffed,"Unlikely,"

Pain shot a look at the young Uchiha over his shoulder,"Then you explain it, he never takes his ring off, something must have happened,"

The bluette nodded,"I agree, something must have happened,"

Itachi 'hn'd', he knew they were concerned and they could do whatever they wanted, they were their own people after all (No matter what Madara said) and so was he, which was why he wasn't worried for his old master, not the least little bit.

That old coot was stubborn he wouldn't just let death take him, he'd roll over and taunt it to rub his belly and then Tsukiyomi it back to the pits of hell.

That's how he was.

But of course Pain and Konan care about their own peace, that's the only reason they worried, it was like Madara and Deidara. They only care about themselves.

"Shall we send Zetsu to find him?," The orange haired body made it sound like a suggestion but his mind had already been made up.

The two more stoic ninja both nodded, knowing it would be stupid to object.

"Alright then," Pain narrowed his eyes,"Zetsu,"

Said plant man fazed out of the ceiling above the two youngest ninja,_**"Yeah, Yeah, no need to explain we heard you,"**_ both sides chorused.

"Good, now go,"

_**"Yes sir," **_Zetsu nodded, taking off to start his mission.

"I should take my leave as well, Kisame is waiting for me," Itachi voiced, turning and leaving Konan and Pain alone.

The kunoichi sighed,"What if Zetsu can't find him Nagato?," she wondered.

"I will have to extend my storm,"

Konan watched him walk to the very end of the platform, the rain getting heavier and heavier with every step he took, "But, that will drain your chakra,"

"If it must be done then so it shall be," Pain's voice boomed.

Konan started to voice her objection but closed her mouth, dejectedly looking away from the light and into the darkness. If Nagato suffered it would be the Uchiha's head.

**0 0 0**

Murders of crows flocked together of roof tops and power lines, eagerly waiting for the groups of ninja to move away so they reach the delicious meat of the dead prisoners lining the street.

The fight between Tsunade and Yoshi had ended after a vicious battle that destroyed the Hokage's mansion and literally split the village in half with a deep gash, branded with Yoshi's lava jutsu and scarred with Tsunade's fierce fist.

The cause of all of this chaos and destruction was sprawled on the ground at the feet of Tsunade, Kakashi, Yamato, Sai, Naruto and Sakura, as well as the members of several other teams, bleeding from every possible place he could bleed out of, a puddle of crimson had been created around his beaten, bruised and destroyed form.

"Look at what he has done granny," Naruto said in a cold voice, his face frozen in a full hearted glare of hatred, "He's destroyed so much, he deserves to die,"

Yoshi laughed loudly despite the pain he felt throughout his body as a result,"Don't you get it you fool? I wanted you to kill me, I wanted to die," he said in a hiss.

Everyone was quiet but Naruto being Naruto (Angry or not) had to ask, "Why?,"

Yoshi's smirk dropped,"My one and only friend is dead kid, I ain't got nothing to look forward to except spending the rest of my life going from prison cell to prison cell,"

Naruto raged, this bastard was sobbing about his friend when he killed, he did so much harm, he caused so much destruction!, "It didn't have to be this way, if you hadn't-," Naruto started.

"If I hadn't I wouldn't be here but I did and there isn't a damn thing that can change that. There isn't a damn thing that can bring my friend back and there isn't anything that can stop me from trying to finish off all those who betrayed him," the blue haired man finished.

On the other side of the village, in the defense squadron, the council members were filing out in a less than orderly formation of their sted, with the more sibling-esk (They were always together) pair of the group wandering off by themselves to the edge of the complex building.

"That was ridiculous," Koharu spat, fanning herself.

"I concur, absolutely appalling," Homura said just as angrily.

"At least it is over now," The elderly woman snapped her fan shut.

Unknown to the two of them (and the rest of the ninja near by) a slow rolling wave of lava , the only remaining part of Yoshi's specialty justu, ran down the small incline slowly, towards the very back of the building.

There was a sizzle, catching the attention of everyone before a white hot explosion and nothingness.

The group of shinobi gapped at the rising mushroom cloud of fire and smoke in shock while Yoshi chuckled to himself, "My job is done," he rose his hand in the air ,pointing toward the sky,"You can thank the masked Akatsuki and your own foolishness for your suffering,"

**(Damn Yoshi 0_o)0 0 0**

"Yes, yeah," Deidara said with a small laugh as he sat on the floor of an old mineshaft Tobi and he had to take cover in from the storm.

'_You know I'm starting to like this new Dei,'_

Madara chuckled, he and Tai still thought the whole happy thing was creepy, but it was pretty fun being able to talk to the bomber without having to worry about saying the wrong thing and getting an explosive centipede down his shirt.

"Once it lets up a bit we'll move out, it's been like this for so long the roads are already flooded, there shouldn't be many tourists in the village,"

"Thanks for spelling that out, hmm,"

They watched the rain for a while, boredom slowly taking its hold.

"I hope this thing doesn't cave in, yeah," Deidara said randomly, looking up at the beams supporting the mine. They were old rusty metal, some were bent, some where strait and some were so warped they didn't even serve their purpose anymore.

Madara patted one of the beams,"I hope not too, it would be a big blow to my ego,I helped make them," he said excitedly with a smug smirk.

'_When did we do this?,'_ Tai asked in an 'Honest to Kami I have no idea so please answer me,' tone.

_"After the bridge was destroyed,"_ Not only was it a mine to collect precious gemstones and gold but it was a secret escape route for the villagers as well, if Kusa was ever attacked they had some way to get to the neighboring village.

_'Oh yeah,'_

The terrorist snorted,"First the wood carving now mine work. You are full of surprises you damn Uchiha, hmm,"

Madara chuckled, sitting next to his partner. He was quite surprising wasn't he? He did invent Tobi and act like him every single day, after all, that takes commitment.

And a lot of energy.

It made him glad Deidara knew he was an Uchiha now, he didn't have to pretend to be that 123 pound ball of bouncy and sugar canes because he did not have the energy for that right now.

Hell he barely had enough stamina to run from the mine to the tree only fifty feet away.

That's pathetic.

Madara stretched out his legs and crossed his ankle over the other, pressing his back to the wall to help brace himself.

Deidara leaned his head on the elders shoulder, using it like a pillow, "You're a soft fucktard, yeah,"

'_And I'm scared again,'_

**TBC (2732 words!)**

**(1) If you sleep in 30 minutes intervals around five times a day over the course of about a month your body will start to dive into REM sleep faster to make up for your sudden douchie ness towards it and of course we dream in the REM stage. Yes folks I actually know stuff :D . 880x950= AHHHH! MAH BRAIN!**

**Lucy you gots some 'splanin to do!: **Yoshi knew where the council members where hidding, one of the lava pools he created that was still red and flowing barely scraped the edge of one of the paper bomb kunai dropped on the ground during his and Tsunade's fight, it exploded and the base beneath them collapsed into a giant crater. That's what happened to the old people ^_^.

**Thank you for reading! Please review! BYE!**


	9. Chapter 9

**I'd like to thank DragonFire44 for reminding me to fill in a very important plot hole :D though I was going to fill it at a later date, I figured I'd just do it now and save everyone the confusion.**

**QE: The reason Dei didn't freak out when he learned Tobi was an Uchiha was because his hatred for Uchiha started with Sharingan, and Madara had his deactivated when he and Dei met up. **

**Disclaimer: No. Still don't own Naruto. 4463 WORDS!**

**(Rant*rave*rant*rave*START!)  
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Just beyond the village limits of Kusagakure the villagers were bustling about, going on with their daily lives, going to the market, going to stores. Children were just out of the academy for the morning and were playing games that stretched from the front steps of the academy building all the way to the edge of the forest where a 'test of courage' happened to be taking place.

Yes, a test of courage indeed.

One little black haired boy was being shoved into the tree line by two taller (Obviously a couple years older) twin girls, a group of kids were standing behind them, some were cowering in fear others were literally jumping up and down awaiting their turn to go.

It amused the elder Uchiha who was walking by with his blond partner, especially when the girls finally succeeded and the boy fell face first into a cluster of Yellow Rattle plants.

The night in the cave had been interesting to say the least, Deidara had fallen asleep against Madara's side after sitting in silence listening to sound of the rain for about an hour.

As it turned out, Uchiha's were not that comfortable, they had bony shoulders.

Ah and speaking of rain, it seemed the storm was finally over. The sun was out, the sky was clear and everything was sparkling.

(A/N:Wow actual detail? somebody call an exorcist, the authoress has been possessed by the spirit of a semi-decent writer!)

Ugh, sweet thoughts, block them out, block them out.

'_Don't fight the beauty!,'_ Tai yelled with a Tobi like enthusiasm.

_"I can fight it if I want to!,"_ Madara hollered back.

He could and he would.

Because Uchiha's don't swoon over pretty things.

Of course that doesn't mean he can't enjoy it on the inside, he liked the smell of the world after a good rain. It was like what inarizushi was to the taste buds, too sweet for some, addicting to the more _adventurous _folk.

And old people.

Yes, the smell of dew was cat nip for the elderly.

Looking over to his left to the (Slightly ironically) dewy rice paddy, he almost smiled. He had needed something to calm him after all the terrors he had the night before and for whatever reason something as simple as a quaint little paddy full of women harvesting the years first harvest always calmed him.

Perhaps it had something to do with traveling so much with Izuna.

Madara nodded his head to himself.

That was probably it.

TaiTai suddenly gave a loud angry roar, all specks of the 'Tobi' attitude gone,_'I swear, if Deidara flips his hair like that one more time I'm going to smack him,'_

Hn, that was another reason he tried to find solace in the fields.

Deidara kept messing with his hair.

Flicking it over his shoulder, tossing his head to clear stray hairs from his eyes, which only fell because he seemed to have lost his headband (the Uchiha couldn't remember if he had lost it during the battle or while he was hiding from ANBU, either way it was gone)

It was okay at first but he did it every couple of minutes, this started when they left the mine and If he did it again Madara would gladly smack him himself.

As if he was reading the Uchiha's thoughts Deidara went to flip his hair again.

_'He's doing it again!,'_

Really? Sweet Kami.

Madara snapped his annoyed gaze and attention to the younger ninja just in time to see him push his hair back off his shoulder, the sway of his step and him fixing his -stupid- hair revealed the skin of his neck.

The elder's gate slowed as he stared in surprise at the flash of blue and purple.

Was that a bruise on his neck?

TaiTai made a nasally 'oohing' noise,'_Maybe he fell?,'_ it was more a question than a statement.

~Maybe he fell~...Hn.

The blond suddenly stopped walking, the raven quickly followed suit, watching with moderate interest,"We are going to get lumber first? yeah," Deidara asked a little unsurely.

Madara blinked, "Uh, yes,"

"So what do we need? hmm,"

"We just need a few 2x4's, some wood sheets, a ground wire, pipes," he let himself trail off, they needed more than that but the list was so long it would take the entire trip just to name them all.

Okay that was an exaggeration.

But not by much.

It wasn't like Deidara understood what he was talking about anyway so it would be a waste of breath to name everything off, he didn't know how to patch a roof or create plumbing or construct a porch out of raw materials, things like that required planning.

The ex-Iwa may have been smart enough to do it but it went against his saying of 'Art is a work of fleeting passion', there was no way he would put out the work effort.

Construction and repair, In the long run they were more Sasori's and -apparently- Tobi's department.

**0 Meanwhile 0**

Many miles away, crouching beside the feet of the Madara statue at the Valley of The End, was Zetsu.

He was pulling the things said Uchiha had hid there out from a hole carved into the side of the statues sandal and was examining each new find with curiosity.

**"It is his cloak and his mask,"** The black half said after the dominant side finished unfolding the neatly folded cloak.

_"And his ring," _White Zetsu held up the object by the silver band, the stone flashed and he grunted.

He would get back to that later, there was something hidden within the inner pockets of the cloak that caught his attention the second he laid his hands on it.

As Kuroi spoke the lighter half began to dig in search of what nagged him,**"Well, we know he isn't dead,"**

White Zetsu blinked at the handful of sprigs wrapped in a white cloth, why on earth would Madara need herbs?

Curiosity quelled, he placed the plants inside his own cloak,_"Yes and he is in Kusa," _he said turning his attention back to the ring.

**"What? How do you know?,"**

_"The ring told me," _The white half said ominously, feeling his other half attempt to glare at him he sighed,_"There's a message on the ring,"_

Kuroi sweated,**"Oh...Play it man!,"**

**(I just noticed that I named the lightning dude Shiro, which means white. Sorry Zetsu!)**

**0 Time Skip! 0**

A perky looking brunette smiled at the blond criminal with glee, "Down the hall to your right sugar!," she said, pointing down the hallway to her left with her green ballpoint pen.

Deidara stiffly turned on his heel away from the cashiers desk and headed to the bathroom, his hair clumped with mud, his face splashed with brown streaks that were once wet and runny.

His clothes were strangely clean though.

Clean for someone who tripped over air and face planted in a puddle that is.

"Stay here Tobi! yeah," Deidara called over his shoulder, his form disappearing in the crowd of people filing through the hall.

Madara 'tsked', he could barely manage enough energy to walk from store to store why would he give up his rest time? he sat down on one of the benches by the desk, earning a wink from the flirty cashier .

He smirked and leaned back in his seat before noticing the table beside him.

On that table was a little blue, hand sized book.

A Bingo Book.

Might as well, Dei could be a while, that boy and his hair. It was like a love triangle of sorts.

Madara chuckled, Triangle. If that wasn't wishful thinking.

He flipped open the Bingo book, skimming over the bounties, some of them he had no doubt Kakuzu would probably go after some of them.

He flipped to the S-class section at the back, sliding up into a less relaxed, much more rigid posture as he flipped through them. Like usual, there was Itachi and Kisame, two of the three the villages actually knew about.

But Deidara's page seemed to be missing.

"_It was probably torn out by a bounty hunter,"_ he reasoned.

Yes, that was it, bounty hunters and their crude ways, defiling public files. he tossed it onto the little table next to him where he got it from and sagged in his seat again.

His leg bounced as he tried to think of ways to entertain himself, TaiTai wanted to play I-Spy but Madara wasn't having any of it, there were only six different colors in the front store room he was sitting in, it wouldn't exactly be a very fun game when you immediately know what the object is.

The ticking of the cashier girls pen on the counter was like the seconds ticking by on a clock.

"Boy," That was like the midnight chime.

"Momo," Madara greeted with a nod.

'_Great the hag is back,'_

Momo looked overjoyed at the sight of the Uchiha,"It is good to see you are still alive!," she exclaimed with a smile,"I sensed your chakra in the forest on the day of the festival I was worried Shiro might have gotten you!,"

_'What the hell is she talking about there wasn't anything going on in the village,'_

How would he know? this was the first time Madara had been to the village since...Well you know.

_'Yes but you can hear fireworks dodo,' _Tai did have a point. Unless they didn't have fireworks, but what kind of stale festival wouldn't have fireworks?

"Me and my friend are fine, we didn't run into any trouble," Madara said, straitening himself back up.

He should make it look like he cared, this woman was giving him something more productive to do than sit and be ogled by a girl a good 85 years his junior.

'_Probably because Shiro is just something her elderly cheese mind cooked up to scare people into buying more of her herbs,'_

Madara resisted the random urge to grind his teeth,_"Would you shut up?,"_

_'If she dies right now then yes I will shut up,'_

The Uchiha made the motion of mouthing a 'Well' -which Momo didn't even notice-.

That was a tempting offer.

But the old woman probably wouldn't live much longer, you know being elderly and all that, so killing her seemed like poor taste to Madara, why waste the energy on somebody Death will come and receive on its own?

"You're still sick,"Momo stated matter-of factly,"Momo's herbs don't fail, Momo knows all about curing illness and if you didn't take your medicine I can only assume you didn't give that friend of yours his either," she crossed her arms, taking on a 'motherly' stance.

'_She's knows all huh? Then I suppose she could get rid of me,'_

_"Don't make me ask her,"_ Madara followed the woman's example, though the whole arm crossing effect wasn't the same. It felt kind of awkward with the way he was sitting.

"There was an accident, we couldn't find each other for a while,"

"He is still alive?,"the herbologist **(1)** looked genuinely surprised at the news.

Madara nodded.

"I'm surprised," Momo put on a thoughtful expression, "Tell me does he know anything about herbs my boy?," she asked after a pause.

"Well he never mentioned it but I suppose he could," Madara answered unsurely.

"What village is he from?,"

Maa, he got what she was getting at.

Only, there was one problem.

"Um...Iwa?," His mind went blank as he tried to remember, was it Iwa or Kiri? What was on his headband?

Wait, he lost his headband during...

During...

Fuck he knew this.

*sigh* This was pathetic.

"You aren't sure?," Momo said for him almost sensing the struggle he was having with himself.

"I can't remember," and it was depressing.

Momo placed a hand on his cheek, "It's no wonder, you're burning up boy," she pulled open the flap of the long strapped leather bag that hung by her hip and dug through, pulling out a clear plastic bag full of dried leaves, she handed it to him,"Here, these were going to be for my daughter but I can see you need them more," She smiled gently,"Be sure to take them this time,"

Madara nodded, "I will," he put the bag on his lap, he didn't have a cloak to stash it in this time around, this was going to be a chore, carrying it around all day.

"Swear it," Momo growled with an evil glare.

"Hn,"

"Good boy," The woman's happy demeanor returned,"Have a good day," she walked off.

Madara started to relax in his seat again.

'_Hey, wait call her back!,'_

Oh for the love of Kami what did he want now?

_"Why?,"_ Madara asked with a loud sigh, the cashier rose an eyebrow at his sudden irritated expression.

_'Just do it hurry!,'_

"Hold on,"

Momo looked back, "hm?,"

'_Ask her what the side effects of those herbs she gave us for Dei's infection are, DON'T ask why,'_

'Don't ask why' pft, asshole.

no matter what Madara thought about TaiTai's follow up 'order' -if it could even be called that- he still asked.

"Tell me, what are the side effects of the herbs you gave me for my friend?,"

Momo stroked her chin,"Let's see, nausea, blurred vision, swelling of the tongue, lose of bladder control, swelling of the joints, pain in the joints, hair loss, a slim possibility of your toe nails turning purple , mood swings-," Madara rose a hand to stop her.

"Define 'mood swings',"

"Violence and depression,"

'_There goes my theory,'_

"Though, if I am thinking what you're thinking, then your friend might have ingested the wrong plant by mistake,"

This woman was amazing, that was exactly what he was thinking.

Well part of what he was thinking.

If Dei ingested a plant that could help him but had some strange side effect -eg, mood swings and loss of balance- he could have fallen or tripped and smashed his head, that would explain the bruise he saw earlier.

And the mood swings plus head trauma would explain 'Super FC Mode'.

_'That seems plausible,'_

It really was understandable, when you're in excruciating pain and your arm is melting from the inside out you just want the hurt to stop.

The adrenaline of having to run from the ANBU probably helped quell the pain a bit, it would have given him enough relief to search for herbs. The forests of Kusa were more than famous for a reason, medicinal herbs were abundant because of its rich soil and rainy seasons.

That's when the myths and legends surrounding the deeper parts of the forest first became more known.

The villagers of Kusa used them to scare away those looking to pick their way of living clean of all the herbs.

Why the fuck didn't he think of that before?

Damnit, these black outs were proving to be annoying.

"He's been very _happy_ lately, for the past week he's been smiling and laughing," Madara heard TaiTai 'shiver' in his head.

"And he isn't dead," A sweat and a head shake, Madara was pretty certain of that. Momo mumbled something under her breath, the words 'Ephedra' and 'Psychoactive' were the only things Madara made out.

Wait Ephedra, why did that sound so familiar.

The old herbologist's voice rose knowing he caught what she said, it wasn't the first time she encountered a ninja,"Anything psychoactive would explain many things, how he is still alive being one of them,"

Madara ran a hand across his face, psychoactive, that was one thing that immediately clicked.

'_Seems our little brat is swooning on cloud 9 with some gutter trolls,'_

But hell they had been together for a solid week he never saw him...

"The tea," It was like the epiphany of all epiphanies.

"Yes, it is an herb usually brewed into tea, if it is consumed fresh and whole it's potency is much higher,"

Wasn't that the reason the most herbs brewed into tea?AH NO! That isn't important, focus for a second. He remembered Deidara asking if he would brew him a cup of tea out of some dead grass, that's what it looked like at the time anyway, that he had stashed in his sandal.

He thought it was weird, especially when it was brewing, giving off a sour aroma like rotting lemons not only that but It tasted off, not poisonous just-.

Well, _off_.

Madara thought it was just because it was in a shoe for Kami knew how long.

Obviously he had been a bit wrong.

_'AHHA! So I was right after all, I shall return in a moment,'_

"He was gone for almost a week,"

Momo hummed,"To subdue an infection in such a short amount of time he must have eaten the first couple of batches raw. It is an unconventional herb but from the sounds of it your friend must have known he was ill and searched out specific plants that would keep him alive,"

Momo went on to tell Madara that it would be out of his system soon and not to worry, that Deidara would be back to normal possibly by Wednesday.

Which was only three days away.

The Uchiha was feeling kind of giddy, he hadn't heard news that good since Zetsu told him the two tails had been captured and extracted, it was fantastic! Now to go get the bomber a 'Welcome Back' gift.

Hell he could go now and be back in time to catch Deidara coming out of the bathroom, no problem.

**(Note: There are 48 chapters between the extraction of the 2 tails and Deidara's death, ID first flashback in Chap 1 to narrow down timeline furthur, look for who isn't there)**

Zetsu fazed out of the ground and looked around, both sides groaned loudly out of annoyance.

**"Damn we just missed him," **The black half cursed.

_"Is it just me or is his chakra somehow _different_?,"_ the white half asked.

**"Yeah I noticed that too,"**

There was nothing more different than having it spike dangerously for a few minutes before withering down to almost a surpressed form. It was like a distress call only Zetsu knew it wasn't, so what was causing it.

_"I think we should tell Pain,"_

**"About what? The message or the chakra?,"**

_"Both,"_

By the time the black side agreed, they were already heading back to Ame.

**0 0 0**

"Exactly how do you expect us to haul all of this back to the house? yeah," A now less than sparkling clean -but still cleaner than before- Deidara asked with a heavy sigh.

His hand was on a thick plank of wood that was the only thing holding up the other stacks of lumber, the dry wall, the concrete bags, the hammer, the rolled up tatami mats and the box of nails stacked procariously and messily.

Deidara knew something was going to fall, that's why he was standing off to the side holding it, he didn't want to be in its way when everything came tumbling down and everything that happened to be sharp and point was hurled into anybody unlucky enough to be walking by.

"With this," Madara -who was holding up another plank of wood on the other side of the pile- tossed him a hand size brown pouch over the barrier between them..

Deidara pulled on the end of the slipknot tie that kept it closed with his teeth.

"...Clay? yeah," he eyed the white C2 with interest and mild surprise.

"Yeah, I finally realized why you've been acting so strangely, figured this might make you feel better," Madara answered with a shrug.

Deidara gave him a quizzical look.

"You know, you've been, _happy,"_

The blond merely blinked and went quiet after that.

They flew back to the shack in an uncomfortable silence on one of Deidara's birds. Madara usually liked quiet, that's why he stayed alone or with Nagato or Itachi and had Dei as his partner, but he didn't like this.

No, not at all.

When they reached the hobble Madara decided that since there was plenty of time to get some work in before sunset they could start work right away.

Deidara didn't protest.

TaiTai on the hand...

Well it isn't important, he is just a lazy conscience.

An incredibly lazy, vocal conscience, did that mean that the uchiha -beneath his mask of hyperactivity- was actually dull and lazy? Madara didn't doubt it, but as long as it didn't show its ugly head he didn't see a problem with it.

Who wasn't a little lazy anyway?

"Hand me the nails,"

Ah yes, back to the task at hand.

Madara's idea was that he could fix up the shack and turn into a kind of 'get away' spot. He didn't plan on telling anyone about it, only letting Dei, himself and all the animals at the Falls know about its existence.

It seemed the reconstruction of sorts was going well at first. 'At First' being the key phrase here, Deidara hadn't said a word or even looked at Madara since they left the village. Once the blond zipped his trap it was closed tight.

But the elder could tell it was killing the Iwa to keep quiet, he guessed the effects of whatever the hell he ate -whether it was Ephedra or Lala juice or some type of fermented fruit- really had worn off quickly.

He didn't want to say it was irony no matter how many time TaiTai yelled it.

No it wasn't ironic, it wasn't strange, it wasn't idiotic, it was irritating.

Going from Deidara to random creepily happy guy then back to Deidara was like climbing a mountain, you work hard to get to the top, stumbling and sliding back down with every couple of steps you take then when you finally reach the top, when you finally reach your goal, you go right back down and move on.

What kind of sense did that make?

Madara slammed the box of nails down on the ground by his knee, "I can't take you acting like this anymore, it is ridiculous,"

"What the hell are you talking about? Hmm," Deidara finally spoke.

That old pissy, short fused teenage voice would've been the equivalent to a choir of Gods if Madara wasn't back to his usual fuming self.

"Gee I don't know, how about you acting like a clown? Being all happy and smiling and laughing and talking to me and not in any way reacting when I told you I was an Uchiha! The clan you despise with a passion!," Madara said sarcastically, "Or maybe it's how you suddenly turned back into your usual brat like, selfish self that got us in this predicament in the first place,"

Deidara gapped in disbelief,"You're pissed at me for acting happy? yeah,"

"Yes, no," Did it matter in the long run, no, no it did not, either way Deidara was going to be fully back to normal, it was time to push him over the cliff, there was no going back now,"What I mean is, you're never happy around me, ever. You're always pissed, that's how I got this!," The Uchiha tugged up his sleeve to show a scar stretching from his elbow down to his wrist

Deidara winced.

"QUIT DOING THAT!," he roared.

"You want me to be pissed off...Hm, fine, hmm," Deidara seethed, "You fucking, inconsiderate, Uchiha, Sharingan, Cursed, Asshole, Fucktard, Bitch, ARGH!,"

'_Woah I think we over did it,'_ Tai said in astonishment.

Che, where was the bastard five minutes ago.

Madara watched his partner pace back and forth as he cursed and ultimately returned to his old hot tempered ways.

While he listened to Tai comment on everything Dei said.

When the blond said all Uchiha's where fucked in the head and nothing but violent, Tai scoffed and said that he was one to talk.

What with his 'art' blasting away anybody and everything in its path.

When Deidara punched a tree and said that Uchiha's were stupid.

Tai countered with his usual, '_I know you are but what am I,'_ that while extremely childish, Madara had to admit was true and kind of funny, funny enough for his fevered mind to make him chuckle out loud.

Big mistake.

Deidara glared at Madara and growled something just as Tai laughed loudly.

Shit, what did Deidara just say? he had no idea.

Had he taken a single breath since he started cussing? Madara didn't know he was distracted and couldn't listen! Damnit Tai!

'_It isn't my fault you can't multitask!,'_

"_Yes it is so just __**shut up **__for once!,"_

Tai immediately shut up at the amount force Madara had put behind his words. The Uchiha turned his attention to Deidara as soon as it was quiet in his head, hoping that he might catch at least the end of the insults.

It sounded strange but he liked to hear what insults people could come up with to insult him, besides the usual 'You're such a freak' or 'You're a madman'.

Seriously how unoriginal can you be.

Argh! His own thoughts were just as bad as TaiTai!

"-You lied to me!," he managed to catch.

That was not an insult.

"When did I ever lie to you? I've always told you the truth," Madara growled back deeply.

That was _**NOT **_an insult at all.

"Then why didn't you _tell me_ you were an Uchiha?~! yeah," Deidara's glare intensified seven fold.

That _whatever it was _had been like a thousand Gentle Fists below the belt.

"Nobody knows!,"

"Except for everyone!,"

"Itachi is hardly everyone Deidara," The raven scoffed. He stopped mid eyeroll as he noticed what had slipped out of his mouth.

'_What?,'_ Tai peeped in confusion.

What indeed.

Deidara grumbled and with a huff turned and began walking away.

"Deidara wait," Madara ordered.

The Iwa picked up pace and disappeared into the coverage of the tree line.

_'Why the hell did you mention Itachi? seriously, what was the point of that?,'_

Madara didn't know what to think, he hadn't had any control, it just came out of his mouth. He thought about following Deidara and dragging him back, the hell if he was going to miss his chance and end up having to actually look for the brat.

Tai groaned a 'Nah' ,'_Let's just leave him alone for a while, he'll come back,'_

Madara hoped he was right.

'_Meanwhile we have a job to finish,'_

Right, the ninja ran a hand through his hair, back to work.

**TBC (this is long I am sorry)**

**(1). Lol I uh, spelled this so wrong that even Spell check didn't understand XD**

_Yeah I know the explanation was stupid, but when you think about it, it would make a bit of sense. If he was found by a ninja that wasn't of Kusa he would have been either killed or captured and traded in for his bounty. I really wanted to maintain that Dei wouldn't have been willing to fight in his condition._

**to be honest I did want to make it a jutsu, but why would it change his personality? :o wouldn't that be a little suspicious? plus the only person I think could or would put him under a jutsu would be Sasuke to try and get info on Itachi, which once again brings up the question, why would Dei act different? **_I love the idea but, doesn't really fit in, in the long run. _

**Thank you for reading! Please review, favorite and all that good stuff! BYE!**


	10. Chapter 10

_Sorry this one is short folks, very, very bad family problems. ARGH! I don't like this one! So bad T_T_

**THANKIES!: Yuti-chan, QueenOfFanFicWorldLoveGunner and DragonFire44!**

_Random Useless info!: I won't be using a refrence or description of Deidara's personality when writing him, because really, if you think about his personality and think about characters who acts the same way you would come up with Sokka from Avatar The Last Airbender (Only he has a Boomerang instead of bombs). So you guys have to tell me if I'm writing him too OOC, like "i can't take this much OOC-ness" OOC. Honest mistakes are homest! and a very bland Hummus._

**Still don't own Naruto~! 1605 words!**

The Uchiha glared at the steaming, swirling broth in the cup he was holding on his knee as he leaned back against one of the newer looking walls of the shack, which actually looked more like a place creatures aside from chipmunks and snakes could live in.

He will come back.

That was what Tai had said right after Deidara stormed off.

'_And he will come back, just let him have some time alone to vent,'_

Madara sighed and sipped the bitter brew. He knew Dei would return, that wasn't why he was wishing for the tea to explode -It tasted terrible-, he just hoped that he didn't have an army of clay masterpieces backing him up.

The boy has proven to be resourceful, he could probably make a cart load of clay from scratch with tree bark and lemon juice if he wanted to.

Maybe not C2 but still something Madara wouldn't like to make contact with anytime in the near or distant future.

'_Then the glass really will be in the sandbox,'_

**(And we switch from coal to wheat)**

Deidara blew harshly as he stomped through the forest.

He didn't know how long he had been walking, all he knew was that at that moment he wanted to get as far away from Tobi as he could without actually getting too far away from him.

If that made any sense.

The blond honestly had never been so angry and calm at the same time.

He was pissed.

But it wasn't just what Tobi had told him that got him in that mood, surprisingly.

It was just...

Tobi.

Stupid, moronic, not a single brain cell in that head of his, Tobi.

Was an Uchiha.

A fucking, Uchiha.

He gritted his teeth and clenched his hands into fists so tight his nails dug into the mouths on his palms and his knuckled turned white.

It infuriated him!

But it wasn't just the fact that Tobi was an Uchiha that brought him to his boiling point.

Granted that didn't help the bastards case in any way shape or form.

No, it was the fact that Deidara didn't feel anger towards this Uchiha Tobi.

He didn't feel the hate he felt for Itachi.

He felt it but...It wasn't the same.

Maybe it was the herbs still thinking for him or maybe it was that the masked ninja had always acted so care free and ridiculous around him, destroying any sense of respect he might have ever earned.

Maybe it was because Tobi never didn't belittle him, for his lack of physical ability, he never mocked his art.

He never boasted about the power of the sharingan, like a certain other Uchiha. Hell Deidara hadn't seen his sharingan activated during the time they were together.

Not once.

And the things that Deidara absolutely loathed about the old Tobi, were practically non-existent in this new one. He wasn't as hyper, though he did still tell crappy jokes, he didn't talk all the time, he didn't call him Sempai, he didn't whine or bitch.

Excluding the his recent outburst of course.

This new ninja that had taken his place was hardly completely serious when he was calm but he wasn't bubbly either.

Kami did Deidara want to stuff a spider down his throat when _Tobi _spoke, when this Tobi spoke, he didn't mind it. He was so quiet and calm, it didn't grate on the bombers ear drums.

Above everything else, he didn't look like a prideful Uchiha. When the blond first saw his face -even if it was only half of it- he noticed that the resemblance between him and Itachi was only hair, eye and skin tone.

That was it.

He looked _tired_ and -dare he say- sad, lonely even.

Pathetic.

Like a lost child or something.

Only he wasn't a child, he was older than Deidara, the Iwa's ability to solve basic math helped him figure that out.

Plus he knew his way around a wrench and lumber, he reminded the blond of his Danna, especially when he was going through the wooden planks and boards at the lumber yard.

Tobi had told Deidara to look for wood with fine grain and only a few knot-holes but ended up doing it himself.

Because even with that direction the blond still didn't know jack-shit about what would be good for rebuilding a house, finding entertainment in a struggling spider caught in its own web which was hidden within a pile of wood scraps while the Uchi-Tobi looked around with the yard owner.

Deidara came to a stop as he reached the small lake that the waterfalls fell into, beyond the trees he stood beside it was open and green.

...He couldn't think of anything. (**A/N: **Neither can I :D)

He couldn't think of a good reason to treat Tobi any differently, he couldn't think of a reason to hate him anymore than he ever had.

Uchiha or not.

So he wouldn't, at that moment he decided that he wouldn't change how he saw Tobi, unless the situation called for it of course. It seemed more open minded than he usually was, but hell Tobi was still Tobi.

He was still a ball of energy that pounded the terrorists nerves down into pancakes.

Regardless of how the masked ninja acted, Deidara knew for a fact now that there was much more to him than he first though - even when him being an Uchiha was just a hunch- and that he had to keep his guard up, keep his temper at bay if only just enough to not anger him.

He was plenty capable of getting into a fight but his clay supply was still low and Tobi had never succumbed to his art before, he would need a much more 'potent' batch if he ever needed to defeat Tobi.

You know what.

Screw needed, if he ever _wanted _to kill Tobi he needed to be prepared.

So at that moment he decided he would train.

He stared at the open area with his eye half lidded.

Yup, he would go out there and train.

...Any minute now.

...

Deidara puffed his cheeks, he spent too much time lazing around on his ass.

He untied the cheap clay pouch he brought with him and dipped his hand in, grinning as he marveled in the feeling of the clay he had been too loopy to remember he missed so much.

**0 0 0**

Madara dropped the hammer that had been glued to his hand for the past three hours on the ground before dusting his hands off on his leg.

It was getting late, the cicada's were already out and chirping along with the crickets and small distant popping sounds.

They were like little firecrackers, probably spiders exploding, when you're made of C2 explosives and are thrown at hard targets that tends to happen.

Or maybe Deidara had found a lost traveler to torment.

Both are possible but if the smell of burning wood that was caught on the late day draft was any indication the former was much more likely.

TaiTai had given up on Deidara after an hour of taking Madara away from his work on the shack to tune his ears to any noises that might have been the blonds approaching footsteps.

He didn't admit defeat though and a couple hours later he was insisting that Madara go look for him, his excuse was that he wanted to make sure Deidara wasn't getting into trouble.

But the Uchiha knew that Tai just wanted it to be _him _who clears things up.

It wasn't a hard lie to see through, getting into trouble was what Dei did best.

Madara was in agreement, it was great that Deidara was back, and it was great he was getting out and training to re-hone his skills, but he couldn't work himself too hard.

It would be in his best interest if the elder went and brought him back before he fainted or his arm started hurting too badly.

Knowing Deidara his arm could fall off and he would keep fighting.

Madara chuckled lightly at the memory of Dei that flashed through his mind, the iwa without any arms, still funny.

_'Let's go!,'_

The Uchiha locked his fingers behind his head and stepped into the forest, he held back a cough that scratched at his throat as he took a deep breath.

It would really suck if he drank that nasty tasting medicine and it didn't work.

_'If it doesn't work we can rub it in Momo's face!,'_ Leave it up to Tai to use illness as a way to show up an old woman.

* * *

><p>Momo's body shivered as she sneezed, her little cat's tail bristled at the loud noise and sudden gust of air.<p>

Momo sniffed and rubbed her nose, "Somebody must be talking about me," she said petting the kitty with her free hand to calm her.

* * *

><p>Madara snorted as he reached the end of the bombers path and through the cover of leaves spotted the bomber in the not so far off distance, grinning like the little pyro maniac he was.<p>

He had expected TaiTai to be cheering or something else he did regularly but it was strangely quiet in his head. And he didn't even have to tell him to shut up or anything! he let a small smile spread across his face before his ears twitched at the sound of a twig snapping behind him.

"You seem happy about that,"

His face feel and his visible eye widened in surprise at the voice.

**TBC**

**I MADE ART FOR THIS! to save anyone who wants to see it a lot of time I have a direct link in my Profile right at the top. It is pointless but it is still pretty XD**

_Who is it? Only I know :p but it is NOT Dei this time XD that would be quite the magic trick...Thank you for reading, please review, favorite and all that good stuff if you like it :D Bye-bye!_


	11. Chapter 11

**Excuse me for this, It took up more space in my head! DX though I do like how it turned out, it wasn't like I original had it planned. I also hoped I actually fooled someone with the cut off last chapter XD**

**Thankies: Yuti-chan, QueenOffanFicWorldLoveGunner, DragonFire44 and Javiitthaxx(Unrelated fav)!**

**RDBA does not own Naruto! 3011 words!**

"You seem happy about that,"

Madara's happy expression fell and his eyes widened at the sound of the familiar sound.

"That voice," he mumbled spin around, his shock turned to confusion when he saw the owner of said voice.

A coal haired man, with red eyes like the sharingan, pale skin and earrings that stretched his earlobes. He had uneven bangs parted -and thrown over a red headband- to frame his face and tied off at the ends with golden tape, he wore a tan scarf that wrapped around his body and down to his hips.

It made his body bulky and if he was hiding weapons under all that Madara wouldn't be able to tell.

The man smirked a very Uchiha like smirk as his arms slipped out from their heavy cover and crossed over his chest, "Surprised?," he asked smugly.

The Uchiha took an experimental step forward only to have this stranger mimic the action,"TaiTai?," he questioned.

He sounded like TaiTai.

He sounded a LOT like TaiTai.

The man threw his longer bang over his shoulder with a gloved hand as he sighed over dramatically, "I know it's strange seeing me with a body," he let his arm lock loose so he could pull on the scarf,"You can blame your over active imagination for my appearance,"

"How are you-," Madara trailed off as he glared. He didn't know what to ask, obviously a conscience can't be alive, it's like saying karma has a body! it isn't possible.

Not logically speaking anyway.

TaiTai hummed,"How am I alive?," his shoulders bounced when he chuckled lightly,"Simple, I'm not. Though I could be lying, if you wanted, I'm only as real as you want me to be,"

Madara sneered, "Like that helps,"

This was a trick, it was a hallucination or a dream or a jutsu.

It had to be.

"What do you want? Why are you here?,"

TaiTai grinned insanely,"I'm here to kill you," he leaped forward, a kunai appearing in his grasp in a flash.

Madara tried to use his evasive tact but his body only glitched in and out of existence for a second, leaving him wide open to his enemies attack, which was aimed strait for his neck. He narrowly dodged the sharp blade as he ducked out the way, a few hairs however were not so lucky.

It was like Tai knew what he was going to do, he brought his elbow down, it smashed into the back of the Uchiha's head sending it forward into his rising knee. At that moment Madara really wished he hadn't listened to Tai about his mask, blood wouldn't be pouring from his lip if he hadn't.

He would be falling back onto his ass, grasping the lower half of his face either.

That was the first time Madara had been hit since that little mishap with the fourth Hokage.

"You think just because I don't really exist, that I'm weaker than you! That I'm beneath you, but guess what?," TaiTai put a foot on Madara's chest,"You're the same as me, everyone is, that's how the whole world is. When it comes down to it, none of us can prove we exist, none of us can prove we ever walked the earth at all!,"

Madara wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand before grasping the brunette's ankle and twisting, bringing the boastful twerp down to the elders level.

A little lower if you wanted to get technical

Lengthy anecdote and knowledge of his opponents movements, It was TaiTai alright.

As if Tai could read his mind, he pushed himself up off the ground and laughed. 

LINE

Deidara smirked as he tossed another handful of little clay birds at the inanimate wooden target, laughing like a joyful child at the loud sound they made, watching in wonder as the explosion toppled the tree and those that surrounded it.

He dipped his hand into reach for the final hunk of clay when the sound of the bushes behind him breaking apart made his instincts kick in.

The spider flew from the mouth on his hand, he grimaced as his flying hair settled out of his face, the bomb exploded the second it hit the poor man it had landed on.

Tobi didn't even stand a chance.

"Shit, hmm,"Deidara cursed, running over to his down partner. He carefully rolled him onto his back and patted his cheek in a meek attempt to wake him, "Out cold, yeah," The artist looked around then sighed.

He couldn't just leave the fucker out here.

Line

Tai lurched forward, tackling the Uchiha so he was sitting on top of him, the hand still firmly attached to the kunai raised in ready to strike.

This close Madara was forced to look directly into Tai's glowing eyes, the had black spirals growing out of the pupil.

The pattern looked familiar, now that he had a chance to fully take him in, Tai looked a lot like the portraits of the Rikudo sannin's eldest son, only the Uchiha founder didn't wear a headband, his younger brother did.

"Don't worry," TaiTai said, "I'm not him,"

Madara glared, insulted by the notion that he would be stupid enough to think that, _that _Uchiha was still alive and living inside his head.

So insulted he used the situation Tai had put him in to grasp the scarf around his neck and bring his forehead down onto his(Mada). There was a sickening -yet somehow gratifying- crunching sound as the side of Tai's face imploded, he scrambled off the elder, giving him his chance to jump away.

Tai pitifully hacked and coughed, blood spurting out between the fingers pressed over his mouth, suddenly he fell to the forest floor, completely still.

It didn't take a genius to figure out he was dead.

"Guess I win," Madara rubbed his bloody hand on his pants before cautiously made his way over to the body, he was kind of disappointed, all that talking and TaiTai had just dropped dead after a single blow.

He also felt a little sad, if this truly was Tai that he had killed then he had to admit he would miss his sarcastic remarks and disturbingly cheery attitude.

Madara's eyes narrowed as Tai's body faded away.

_Black silhouettes cast over the ridged form of a young teenager moved and shrunk in motion with the path that lead them away, the boy put his head down to cover the falling tears of betrayal._

"It isn't fun is it?," he turned to Tai's echoing voice -up in the trees behind him- but he wasn't there.

"You put all your effort into fighting me," The Uchiha slowly backed up as his gaze jumped around him.

"It's back and forth. You are victorious,"

In a swirl of wind, on the tree branches above Madara, one Tai appeared. In the branch next to him another one quickly followed, and so on until the trees surrounding the raven were full of glowing red eyes.

"Everything has a price Mada," The first one said, crossing his arms.

"You're very existance proves it," they all chorused together.

At that moment Madara took back his last thought, he _hated _this bastard.

_LINE_

Deidara sat next to the bed Tobi lied in, his expression was hard and sweat rolled down his face. The blond draped the cold white cloth across his partners forehead.

_LINE_

Madara sliced through one of the Tai's that had circled around him, the face of an ANBU member glitched across his vision then another quickly took its place and the fight continued without an end in the Uchiha's sights.

"The cycle of violence is a never ending one," One of them spoke tossing a shuriken at Madara who grabbed his current opponent and used him as a shield, the weapon burrowed into his skull and it was another one down.

_A black haired woman clutching a child, huddled in the corner of a room, the little boy shook in __**fear**__ and clutched his mothers long Yukata tighter._

The Elder tossed the limp body aside to avoid another on coming attack.

"It doesn't matter if one chain is broken because somewhere, somehow by some strange twist of fate,"

He tossed another one over his shoulder.

_A line of closed coffins, with the odd open one at the end, a paper skinned boy with bandages on his eyes and his hands interlocked on his chest. The __**saddened **__procession lined up at the foot bowed their heads._

"By a person with something or nothing to gain,"

It was like they were multiplying.

_The laugh of a little girl, her big brown eyes gleaming up in pure joy and innocents at the man looking down at her with a rare __**happy **__smile._

"Another link is created, and another cycle begins,"

Suddenly the clones,other bodies whatever they were froze and stepped back, pushing through them was what Madara assumed was the real one.

"Maddie," The real Tai pointed at him,"You, like your less successful descendant, think that you can just become demons of revenge, go through life trying to end every person that gets in your way and does you wrong. You both think you can just cast away your emotions. Try to cast away your emotions and they just become something else," As he stepped forward one of the copies vanished, "They become something horrible," he smiled sadly, "They become the monsters people like you think you are, what you think I am,"

He tossed a kunai at Madara, it was half assed and Madara side stepped it easily.

This fight was never really a fight, it had been more like a wrestling match between two kids. The world the two were in vanished, Madara wasn't surprised, the forest was replaced with stone shadowed by the rising sun in the distance.

The distant roars of waterfalls turned into the crashing of a single one.

And standing in Tai's place was Hashirama, crouched on one knee, panting, streaks of blood ran down his face from a clean cut on his forehead.

"Lord Hokage!," the red headed woman standing on the sidelines shouted.

Madara clenched his hand around his old Kama and glared at the man in front of him.

"You did some snooping," he growled.

Hashirama used the blade that had stopped him from being flung over the falls during Madara's last attack as a crutch to help him stand, once he was up he clapped his hands together and yelled at the top of his lungs.

"IT ENDS HERE!,"

Trees sprouted from the ground and engulfed the Uchiha, who at this point no longer had control of his body. This wasn't a propaganda fantasy, he wasn't going to win, his own decisions and history had destined him to his fate.

His absolute defeat.

The blade of his kama, now buried to the hilt within the mass of a growing tree trunk, snapped off and with one final glimpse of Hashirama embracing his wife, the Uzumaki, Mito. The darkness he endured for twenty years started again.

Anger coursed through him.

Then determination.

He wouldn't, Madara Uchiha wasn't going to lose this time. Inching his hand through the web of limbs constricting him, he pulled the undershirt sticking from beneath his armor and out fell an explosive tag.

"Fire release,"

The two outside looked at the would be tomb of the mighty Uchiha.

"Grand fireball,"

Hashirama shielded Mito from the heat and flying splinters that erupted.

Madara pulled against the branches that stretched with him like tiny arms trying to drag him back into his prison, but he was strong and they gave out a second later, he flashed and the Senju was the ground beneath him, a hidden knife protruding from the spiky haired mans sandal pointed at his throat.

Madara's shoulders slacked when the scenery faded back to normal, but he didn't move his foot, even when TaiTai's wide eyed face took over Hashirama's.

He gave a little smirk of victory.

"I'm scared, You will be too once you kill me," it faltered.

The smaller raven laughed dryly,"So you really didn't figure it out? Not even with the speech about emotions?," he laughed louder when the cold blade met the skin of his neck,"Man are you dense,"

Madara took the following moment of silence as a chance to think over what he should do, obviously this had something to do with emotions and that Tai was somehow locked to his, or maybe he was them? either way it was quite the situation, if he killed Tai what would happen? Would he become Tobi?

Rikudo he hoped not.

"...It's okay to kill me. Guilt, fear, betrayal, anger, love, confidence, hope, happiness. All the things you've had me carry will be on your shoulders again," Madara pressed the blade harder, a thin line of blood bubbled from the small scratch created, "You're ready to accept the burden, It's pretty heavy though," he let out a bitter chuckle, "Been keeping me at the back of the pack for years,"

The Uchiha swallowed hard, he didn't know if he should,"What are you waiting for? Take it!," Tai ordered in a booming voice that reminded Madara of himself, "Take all of it, finally embrace what you are," he slide his arm across th eground to grab the elders foot,"Just don't forget why you're doing this,"

Madara pulled his foot away and pressed it up to Tai's windpipe. The blade was just big enough to cut all the way into his spine, it would be an instant kill.

Right now Madara didn't think he stomach it any other way.

"So long then, It's been a lot of fun hanging out with you," his vision went shaky but he felt his foot press down.

_They always leave._

Madara's eye snapped open, making Deidara -who was leering over him- jump slightly. His vision was blurred for a moment but quickly cleared on the blonds smirking face.

"Finally awake, hmm," he said.

The elder groaned, ignoring the strange warm feeling he felt in his stomach, "What happened?,"

Deidara was grateful, it didn't seem like Tobi remembered the accidental bombing, "You passed out," And if he didn't remember there was no use bringing it up.

Don't poke the hornets nest if you're not prepared to get stung.

"Deidara, why does my face feel like it was spit roasted?,"

Buzz.

Deidara nervously shifted in his seat,"I'll explain later, yeah," he said scratching his cheek sheepishly.

"So, what were you doing before you passed out?," "I know you were looking for me but being in my presence never made you faint before, hmm,"

"I was...Taking care of something,"

"Revenge?,"

Madara shook his head, "No," No it definitely wasn't revenge,"How long was I out?," he asked.

"A couple of hours,"

"Did you carry me back here?,"

"In a way I guess, yeah, I used a bird to get you back here but I couldn't exactly bring it in the house," Deidara grinned in amusement, making Madara roll his eyes.

"I don't mind if you make them inside Deidara," The Uchiha rubbed his aching face,"Just make sure you don't blow up the house,"

Deidara scoffed,"Wouldn't dream of it, this place would be an insult to destroy with my art!,"

**0 0 0**

"What is that idiotic man thinking?~!," Pain's fist collided the salt stone pillar in his office with a brutal thud.

Two of the three -technically four- standing behind his shaking form glanced warily at each other, while the light hearted side of Zetsu shrugged,_"How are we supposed to know, it's not like we're mind readers, _**Shut up idiot!,"**The white half pouted making the black half roll his eye,** "We're going to go to his last location and search for him,"**

Konan nodded,"At least now you have a general location, the Smaller the hay stack, the easier it is to find the needle,"

Both halves of Zetsu grunted in response, that was just it, Madara wasn't a needle he was a thorn.

Itachi turned his attention back to Pain as Zetsu fazed into the ground -it seemed like every time he saw the plant man he was always seconds away from leaving on a mission-,"Sir I think you should calm yourself," he said, noticing the red heads white fists.

"Itachi's right, what if Madara was simply taking care of some kind of business all this time and suddenly returned? How do you think he would react, seeing you irritated?." The younger Uchiha could hear the worry in Konan's voice,"He would pull his rank and punish you,"

Pain cast a light hearted glare over his shoulder at her,"Why the sudden change of heart Konan? I thought you hated him?," he asked in an accusing tone, his eyes narrowing.

"I do, with every fiber of my being,"

"Then why does it seem like you two are trying to protect him from me,"

Konan croaked in disbelief at his accusation, he didn't seriously think she was protecting that madman?~!,"I'm sorry if that's how it seems, but we can assure you it isn't like that," Itachi said in her place.

"If he is doing something he needs to do then by all means he can do it. But he is always, _ALWAYS _making sure the other members check in if they ever need to take a detour," Pain walked over to his desk and sat down, placing his head into his hands,"Now that I know for sure he will return, I will see to it that, that rule he set in place for us is also a rule he must follow as well," he closed his eyes, drifting off into his own thoughts.

Itachi sighed lightly through his nose before whispering to the kunoichi,"If it makes you feel any better Konan, Madara has never been one for physical punishment," His reassurance only made the blue haired woman more worried.

**TBC! **

**RIP TAITAI! T_T You were a good conscience. Just for fun here are what the memories were.**

**Uchiha clan- Betrayal**

**Child Madara during a raid on the compound - Fear**

**Madara's daughter - Happiness**

**Izuna's Death - Saddness and guilt.**

**Battle with Hashirama - Anger and Determination**

**Deidara - I'll let you figure that out :D**


	12. Chapter 12

**Okay so I think I should let everyone know that there will be alternate endings, one of you already know this, many apologies to the rest of you ^^''. There will be a good and bad ending (like a video game), the things is, one ending needs more development than the other so there may be moments when you're annoyed at the seemingly lack of plot, but rest assured, the plot is there. It is there and it is kicking my ass for not planning ahead.**

**This chapters emotion is Bashful :D you'll get that soon enough.**

**Excuse any Effect/Affect mix ups.**

**RDBA does not own Naruto! 3393 words, AHHH! it wasn't supposed to be this long XD**

**Many apologies for the filleriness!**

Zetsu looked around the bustling village of the hidden grass, his eyes locking on the different things each side found interesting, making passers by stop and stare at the plant like man with the cross eyed expression.

"Momma, momma look it!," A little boy cried pointing at Zetsu with an accusing finger.

His mother sighed, exhausted from running her son around all day,"Don't point sweetie, it's rude," she said pulling the boys arm down.

The shouting of the child didn't go unnoticed (Does it ever?)

The villagers weren't afraid of his appearance or by his ability to faze out of the ground like a sprouting flower, they were just curious and soon there was a small crowd of twenty or so people gathered a few feet away from him, whispering to each other.

Black Zetsu ignored them for the most part, though his opposite side was getting a major ego boost from all the attention.

Kuroi grunted, **'How should we do this?,'** he thought to other side, referring to how they should go about finding where Madara might be staying.

_"Ask around," _the white side thought back in a sarcastic tone. It seemed obvious enough to him, but the black side just groaned.

'**Idiot, we can't just go up to people and ask!,'** he barked.

Shiroi's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, **'**_Why not?,'_

Kuroi growled like a dog, he just didn't! was it really so hard to get? He didn't want anything to do with people, he hated them with a deep seeded passion. The person he shared a fucking body with should have known that.

"_Oh, right. You hate people,"_

NOW he gets it, _**after **_he makes an idiot of himself.

"_So what should we do then?,"_ The white side felt his darker half grin, though it wasn't visible.

It was time to put on the two's most charming persona.

LINE

Black Zetsu could hear his light half grumble inside their new bodies head.

Kuroi truly was pure evil, putting on a henge to change their appearance, then beating his lighter half in a game of rock ,paper, scissors to see who would be the one to control said form. That bastard, he hoped he fell of a cliff.

But then he would fall off a cliff with him.

"_Not if we find Madara first,'_

The expression on their henge darkened.

The damn thing was even attached to his emotions!

**'What?,'** he asked in a menacing tone.

_"Nothing,"_ white zetsu peeped back in a small voice.

Kuroi brought a broad grin to the single tan skinned henge, he knew his alternate side had wanted to be the one to control the body.

But the battle had been won before it was even started, the black side _had _to be the dominate personality, he had the most charisma, the most energy and the muscle, the perfect combination to seduce information out of some poor girl.

What Black Zetsu had White Zetsu lacked.

_'Pft, Charisma,'_ When was the last time they met a girl that actually knew what that word even meant?

His more brutal side didn't even answer him, having spotted the most vulnerable prey he could have ever come across.

Two teenage girls wearing frilly dresses, standing in front of a shop, eyeing Zetsu's henge like a couple of vultures looking over a piece of meat.

Zetsu walked over, bringing his creepy grin down into a suave, cocky smirk,"Excuse me," he chimed making the girls giggle to each other at the sudden gain in his attention, "Have you seen these people?,"

He reached into the now ten sizes too big cloak they wore and pulled out the two Akatsuki members mug-shots.

Yes, the exact same ones that were plastered on the walls of every bounty office and every Bingo book in existence.

They were the type of pictures that somebody would KNOW were the mug shots of some criminal. It was too...

Too-...

"I'm sorry I don't think we have," Whatever it was didn't matter to these girls, who didn't seem to even notice the numbers plastered above their heads.

"No, no we did, remember? yesterday at the lumber yard," The blond girl said.

"Ah right! But I think it was only the blond one," The brown haired girl with a pencil in her hair put on a thoughtful look.

Her friend shook her head,"There was a guy with spiky hair watching him, he had half of his face covered with an orange mask, it could have been the other guy,"

"Only half a mask?," The plant man asked with an eyebrow risen.

They both nodded.

"Interesting," _very_ interesting, Zetsu gave a small smile, "Thank you for your time,"

"It was no problem," The girls smiled.

Zetsu bowed in thanks to them and turned away.

'_Madara took off his mask? Are you buying that?,'_ White Zetsu asked.

But black Zetsu was already off in his own little world. The henge fell and White Zetsu gained control of his body once again, he dipped his hand inside his cloak and got to work writing down the most recent development.

**Skip!**

Tsunade stood at the foot of a giant pile of wood and twisted metal, watch the people on the pile, as they scurried around like squirrels.

The team consisted of several Jounin, Chuunin, Ninken and even a few of the Gennin from the academy who were working along side their parents.

The job was simple, clean it up and see if there are any survivors.

Though the Hokage wasn't hopeful, the chance that this was a mass grave for the counsel of Konoha was becoming more and more likely with each passing moment.

"Anything?~!," she called up for what seemed like the billionth time.

"No ma'am, we've barely scratched the surface of this mess," Raido said as he wiped his forehead off with a towel.

"Well then what are you doing over here? GET BACK TO WORK! NOW!,"

The usually calm ninja was surprised by Tsunade's anger, so much so that he clicked his heels and bowed,"Yes ma'am!," before getting right back into pulling debris off the pile.

"This is a complete disaster," Izumo said with a sigh.

The two gate guards had hardly gotten away without scratch during the attack, Izumo had broken his arm trying to save Kotetsu, and said chuunin had a couple cracked ribs and several burns, most of which were on his face.

His usual nose bandage had a lot of company.

They were both unable to help, instead they were to 'Supervise' the operation. Tsunade already had that covered, so they got to sit back in the shade of a portable tent that the Intel units sometimes used and relax.

"On the plus side construction on the wall has started up," Kotetsu said, taking everyone's attention to two workers in a lift on the one section of wall that was finally up, they were smoothing the concrete when a rope snapped and one of the workers slide over the edge, barely managing to catch it before he fell to his death. The other was screaming for help as he clung the surrounding support poles like his life depended on it.

From the ground they could hear the one still on the lift yell for help.

"Aren't they ex-ANBU?," Izumo's comment made Kotetsu chuckle.

The blond covered her eyes with her hand, she couldn't stand seeing 'Konoha's finest' acting like Naruto with less skill,"I'm surrounded by morons,"

"Lady Tsunade!," The three looked over to see shizune and TonTon running towards them.

'_So this is where she ran off to,'_ Tsunade thought.

The younger woman looked excited and relieved at the same time,"It's a miracle!," the little piggy by her feet oinked in matched enthusiasm, as if trying to explain in her own way.

"Uh," Izumo and Kotetsu hummed dumbly.

"The Elders! they all survived the explosion," Shizune explained,"And even better, the underground catacombs are still in tact,"

The two gate guards were overwhelmed with shock, while the slug sannin laughed,"This is great news!," She placed her hands on her hips and swiveled back over to Kotetsu and Izumo, "Kakashi,"

The two chuunin and black haired medic ninja jumped as Kakashi appeared behind the duo inside the tent with his usual lanky form and half assed 'Yo'.

"You know what to do!," Tsunade smiled when the Copy nin nodded.

**-Skippy!-**

Madara banged his fist heavily on new bathroom door that stood between him and the strangely quiet bomber inside, "Deidara," he said in his 'Leader' voice,"You've been in there for an hour, you'll be a prune if you don't get out,"

He was answered with the same silence he had gotten since the water turned on, they hadn't talked much since he was more than a little angry with the blond, and if anybody else had done to him what Deidara had admitted he had done to him, he wouldn't even be up right now.

The gig was up when Tobi's arm went completely numb and he demanded that Deidara tell him.

His partner caved, not because of the demand -which was when he started to kneed nonexistent clay in his hand- but he felt a little bad for doing it. Only enough to tell him, not enough to apologize.

Then again he would _never _feel sorry enough to do that so it was stupid to even suggest it.

"Brat!," the Uchiha tried again.

"..."

Madara huffed,"Alright fine, this was the fifth warning, I'm coming in!," he opened the door, "What the hell are you doing he-," his words stopped dead mid word when the door jammed against something or someone, making them slide to the floor.

Where they stayed on their side, back facing the Uchiha, completely naked.

Madara grimaced and averted his eyes.

Well Deidara was bathing, it was to be expected that he wouldn't be fully clothed.

Still he could have left his boxers on or something.

The Uchiha nudged him with his foot and called his name again. when it had no effect he made a whining noise, he didn't want to touch him! half of him wanted to leave him to drown, the other half scolded him for being stupid Dei and he were both guys he could do it.

Wake him up, that is.

Nothing else.

Nothing perverted.

Keeping his attention on a light fixture on the far wall and knelt down on one knee and worked an arm around the blond shoulders, pulling him up so he was leaning most of Deidara's weight against his knee.

The older ninja was thankful he had his gloves on, he brought his eyes down and concentrated on Deidara's face, "Wake up," he patted his cheek lightly, his hits becoming harder and harder the more he had to do it.

Finally, once his cheek began to turn red, the Iwa moaned lightly, his eyes squinting open,"Tobi?,"

Madara made a noise of interest, taking notice that Deidara had opened both of his eyes.

This was the first time he had ever seen both of Deidara's eyes open at the same time, even back before any of this happened, the bomber always kept his left one either closed or had it hidden behind his scope.

He always said he was training to use it against Itachi.

Poor boy didn't understand that nothing, except for other two legendary eye Kekkei Genkai, could counteract the Sharingan.

Much less the Mangekyo Sharingan Itachi possessed.

"Well good morning sleepy head, you know I was wondering if I did a good job with the bathroom, it seems it's pretty damn comfortable," Madara said in a sarcastic voice.

"I guess I fell asleep, hmm," Deidara barely managed to mumble, rubbing his eye with the pad of his palm.

The older shinobi moved his hand to the spot inbetween his shoulder-blades and pushed him up,"Obviously, You could have drowned if I hadn't come in,"

Deidara yawned,"Probably, yeah," he said uncaringly.

Madara stood and towered over him with his hands on his hips.

"I'm fine now Tobi go do whatever the fuck you were doing," Staring out the window in the front room probably, that's what he does when he first wakes up.

The Uchiha grunted,"Says the man on the floor sitting cold water,"

"Maybe I like cold baths, hmm," Deidara grumbled, despite his blush and obvious embarrassment.

He winced as he made the stupid move to try and pull himself up, his neck was throbbing, rubbing the spot he remembered that he had fallen asleep leaned up against the wall behind the door.

The only question he had was where the bruise was going to show up, at that thought his arm started to ache too.

Deidara grasped the slowly healing wound and hissed, it wasn't as bad as it had been a few weeks before, but it still hurt as though it were fresh.

While the bomber started to rub his arm trying to quell the pain, Tobi was turning on the faucet in the tub.

"I'm refilling the tub, you should get in before you catch a cold," The masked man said shooting an amused look down at his partner, he knew he couldn't get up and he knew he would have to help him.

Deidara did too, that's why his expression hardened,"Whatever, hmm,"

Madara 'hn'd' and offered a hand to the blond, who took it hesitantly, feeling his pride as a shinobi shatter.

He was being helped into the _BATH_ by one of the same _UCHIHA _he swore he would _KILL_. That hurts.

The elder wrapped an arm around his torso -making sure not to look down- and one hand around the upper part of the bombers arm, he half carried half dragged him over to the side of the tub where he let him sit.

Deidara grabbed onto the side, letting himself slide/fall down into the water, leaving his legs to dangle over the edge.

It looked like he had been pushed into a watering troth.

Madara sat on the edge, similar to how Deidara had, only he didn't want to get wet so he leaned forward for extra insurance, "I'm staying here, just to make sure you don't fall asleep again," he said.

Deidara grunted.

They sat there, listening to the heavy hitting of the splashing water, like a miniature waterfall.

Until Madara broke it, with a very heavy handed statement.

"My name is Madara,"

He couldn't believe he was doing this, but he let everything else out of the bag. His face -half of it or all of it, it was the same thing to him- his voice, his real personality.

He figured he might as well reveal his name, plus he really didn't want to be called Tobi anymore.

It was starting to piss him off.

"Uh," The younger ninja blinked absent mindedly.

What the fu...

The Uchiha leaned closer toward his face,"My name is Madara," he repeated more slowly.

Deidara turned his head toward the rising water, glaring at it and Madara fixed his posture.

So Tobi wasn't even Tobi. He was Madara.

Madara _Uchiha_.

This new detail was big for the blond, it gave him another thing to use against the masked man. It gave him something to water his hatred with.

Another lie.

Though he had to admit,"Spotted fan, yeah," he said with an amused grin, "Is the inability to name children genetic or is it taught? hmm,"

"It's genetic and it started with my grandfather," Madara said in a tone that reminded the blond of a teacher.

He wanted to lighten the mood, it was uncomfortable to sit next to a man you just told your second biggest secret to. He didn't worry though, the bomber was like what a rat was to a cat when it came to power, if he needed to he could end him.

He wouldn't.

But he could.

That's what he thought anyway.

Deidara, being the literal person he was couldn't tell if what Tob-Madara had said was a joke or if he was being serious. His tone said it was the latter but the glint in his eye told Deidara that it was the former.

His sudden warriness made his expression fall.

Madara noticed and his sly grin followed suit.

**0 0 0 **

Pain's eyes narrowed as he clenched his hand around the scroll Zetsu had sent in a vice like death grip.

"Itachi," he said solemnly, "You are to go to Kusa," he turned to face the younger Uchiha,"You are to find that crazy old fool,"

Itachi tilted his head slightly,"Yes sir, but what am I to do when I find him?," he asked.

"You know him inside and out Itachi, you know his weaknesses, if he puts you into _**that**_ position you have permission to end him on spot," Itachi remained calm but inside he was taken aback by Nagato's bluntness.

It was hardly surprising, he just hadn't expected the fellow pacifist to be so strait forward about killing the person he thought would bring his dream to reality.

"However," The raven blinked, "It would put a massive divot into my plans if he were to be incapacitated or be killed. If need be do it, but dragging him back would be best scenario," Pein said slowly, a little self-doubt shining through his words.

"I am expected to drag a senile hundred year old Uchiha back to you," Itachi raised an eyebrow.

"If you cannot do it Konan and I will gladly go in your place," Itachi took that as a sign to quickly rack his brain, weigh his options.

He hated Madara just as much as Nagato and Konan and he knew it wouldn't be right to let those two go after him, Madara was too strong, much more so than the eldest Uchiha himself and his two underlings even realized.

Itachi did know the secret -A jutsu that could reverse the very flow of time- but it was a secret with a brutal pay off.

But that was where his past time spent with Madara came in, he knew how to end him and he knew how to coax him back without having to get physical, that's why Nagato had called him. If it was all about brute force he would have called Kisame as well, their ''leader'' had a plan, he didn't let anyone else in on it, but he had one.

Itachi could only contemplate what it was. Actions speak louder than words after all and Nagato had been nothing but livid every time he met with Konan and the young raven.

He knew how Nagato was feeling and he felt for them both.

He felt for his old sensei too, though it held a small place in his heart. Madara was a cruel, cold old man that had lost everything because he couldn't get over his own spite.

And those feelings showed, that was what made Itachi hate him.

But he was also someone who was betrayed by his own family and then in the end he helped his descendant -his own student- kill them all, down to last woman and child.

He couldn't really explain what he thought of Madara, he was quite the character.

One thing he knew for sure was that they were smiliar, they had more in common than just blood, it may have killed him a little inside, but it was true.

The elder had stuffed away his own feelings to deal with all the fatalities he had seen during his lifetime, just like Itachi had.

Only he had hidden them for so long It was like he forgot how to feel emotions, and what things like happiness felt like.

That was where they were different.

Itachi was lucky enough to still have those brief moments of humanity, he still had someone to care about.

His little brother was still alive.

"No, I will go and retrieve him," he said.

Pain flicked his eyes over before nodding, "You leave tomorrow, once you reach the village Zetsu will be there waiting for you,"

With that the Uchiha nodded and vanished in a flurry of black feathers.

**TBC:**

**It was fun writing itachi :D have him explain his feelings toward Madara. My thought on their relationship is this: **

**Whenever Madara was around Itachi he saw his clan and how they all wanted peace, and whenever Itachi is around Madara he sees a living example of war, something destroys everything it touches. Like a tornado. *dies from long winded explination***

**Madara: She died the way she lived, writing terrible scenario's.**


	13. Chapter 13

**WITH THIS CHAPTER I HAVE DECIDED TO QUIT BEATING AROUND THE BUSH! Meaning we're only two maybe three chapters away from the endings. Guess I just got sick of it :p Not the story the stretching it out. Meaning Madara will act a little differently, it will all come together in the endings. so forgive me for this one!**

**Thankies: Yuti-chan! QueenOfFanFicWorldLoveGunner! DragonFire44! and deed0123456789!**

**If you really believe I own Naruto then put the phone back on the hook because your village has been calling. 2290 words~! **

The wind whistled through the crack in the window of Deidara's room.

Correction, Deidara and Madara's room.

Madara had been 'Kind' -yeah right- enough to clear out one of the older rooms of the old shack converted house for him, because that was what Deidara had asked for.

But after one night the blond was back sharing a bed with the Uchiha because him constantly getting up to check on Deidara screwed up both of their sleep schedules.

The very next night the room sat dark and empty, the bed Madara had gotten for him pushed against the ravens to make more space, the two sleeping strangely close together.

Madara didn't like Deidara going off on his own anymore, he'd rather deal with a frisky, pissed off pup on a short leash than have something bad happen again. He refused to have anymore battles with his conscience or consciousness. Or any other type of mythical thing that shouldn't exist.

But he knew that Deidara didn't want to constantly be at his side, he didn't want to be stuck in this house. Madara did, Deidara didn't.

Madara could plan here, he had quiet, he had fresh air, he finally had a place where he didn't have to worry about ANBU.

Deidara needed to get out. It was his nature. It was that simple.

The Uchiha took a deep breath,"I'm sorry," he said, "I'm sorry for lying to you and I'm sorry for keeping all this stuff from you, and I'm sorry for keeping you here," he was half asleep, maybe that was why he had said what he just said.

No, there was no 'Maybe'. That was the only reason,His sickness was slowly going away so that was the only option left.

Who knew Momo knew what she had been talking about?

Deidara grumbled back tiredly, "You just apologized for lying twice, stupid, hmm"

"Lying and not telling someone something are two different things," Madara muttered back, "Brat,"

Deidara stiffened feeling the Uchiha's arms lazily try to wrap around him, getting his uchiha germs all over him. He was pretty warm though, _comfortable _even, it was too much for the tired bomber so he relented letting Madara pull him closer.

He smelled like burning wood and...Was that _pine sap_?

_Ew._

Deidara sighed, scrunching his nose,"...Why won't you leave me alone? yeah,"

"I don't want you to leave, every time I turn my back you run off,"

"I'm not a dog, I'm not expected to be leashed to your side all of the time,Of course I'm going to take every chance I get to get some piece and quiet, hmm, be on my own for a while,"

"It's not good to be alone you know,"

"I like being alone," Madara's eyes opened,"That's what being a ninja means after all, learning to let go of weakness. Things like bonds are weaknesses, being out here together-...," he frowned, Deidara spoke the truth.

"I don't know what you feel for me, yeah. But I don't give a fuck about you," Deidara's words were cold and jagged.

The thing about the truth is sometimes it can hurt.

"Then don't give a fuck, just ignore me," Madara wanted to be like that for just a bit longer - damn was his old age catching up with him or what?-, when he was like this, he couldn't feel the warmth in the gut. Only Deidara's chest heaving, "Be good and I might buy you a lollipop next time we go to the village,"

"I hate sweets,"

The older ninja squeezed him tighter.

There wasn't a single drop of love in the blond, it had nothing to do with that, him staying with Madara, it was a simple act of stubbornness and rebellion against himself.

Without any meaning or any reason.

Just to do it.

But for Madara.

Perhaps it was a little more.

_Line_

_Itachi tried to slow his panting breaths as he sat leaned over, hands on his knees, knees on the ground, he could feel the blood trying to ooze its way up his throat. _

_Madara stood in front of him on the other side of small clearing, his arms crossed over his chest, frowning face hidden by his flamed mask,"That wraps it up for today kid," he said._

_The young Uchiha shook his head, Madara had gone particularly hard on him today, at least that was what he thought. Truthfully Madara had done nothing differently, if anything he may have lightened the load a bit, leaving out the time jutsu training and replacing it with thirty minutes of meditation -something Itachi was thankful for. _

_He had noticed Itachi's pale face when he arrived, he knew what it was, and he knew he couldn't push him too hard if he wanted to get the youngers eyes someday._

_They needed to be developed more, he needed to finish honing his Mangekyo._

_"But I'm not tired yet," he said in a raspy voice._

_Madara fought the urge to call the child out, quickly deciding to throw in the topic of his tardiness -two minutes is tardy for an Uchiha-, "You may not be but I am, besides your parents will be expecting you home soon, if you're late what will your father think?," his frown turned into a slight smirk beneath his mask, having been lucky enough to catch the hitch in Itachi's breath and the sudden widening of his young eyes._

_His father, the thing that hit the little Uchiha's nerves like a ton of bricks. He hated that man, even more than anything._

_Even Danzo , Madara and nearly as much as war._

_He knew what all of those things were capable of and he wasn't comfortable around any of them._

_Yet here he was in the middle of the forest training with the elder, the village was teetering on the verge of possible war, and at his home -probably sitting at the table in complete silence- Sasuke was with Fugaku -the one threatening a coup- with Mikoto standing at the sink washing dishes like she always did when she wanted to block out Sasuke's pleas for attention._

_Mikoto didn't care, Itachi knew it, she acted like she did, but she didn't._

_She wasn't a mom, she wasn't what Sasuke needed to be happy._

_Itachi wanted that for his brother, while he still could, he wanted him to be nothing _**but **_happy._

_Even if it only lasted one day._

_The elder looked at him curiously,"If you hate it there so much why don't you take Sasuke and leave?," he asked, his sincerity so real that is was sickening._

_Itachi's head shot up, his face soft in an innocent disbelief._

_Leave._

_With...Sasuke?_

_"I can't," he said quickly._

_Madara 'tsk'd',"Itachi, there is no such thing as 'Can't', there is only 'Won't',"_

_"no i 'CAN'T'," Itachi forced out the word,"If I leave with sasuke, who will carry out the mission? And if that's not what you mean then, explain how will sasuke survive as a fugitive? How will I be able to care for him? Certainly this organization of yours does not have an academy, he will be completely cut off from society,"by the end he was up off the ground and standing his ground against Madara, though his legs were shaking a bit._

_"If my brother and I were raised in a honeycomb labyrinth of ignorance and bigotry like Konoha__**, I **__certainly would have taken him and left," _

_"I'm different," _

_Madara couldn't wait to hear this._

_Itachi's face took on an air of seriousness Madara had never seen on a child before,"I will NEVER hurt Sasuke,"_

_"Never', is a pale word Itachi," The older raven said grimly, but the younger didn't even move, he only kept glaring._

_Madara mumbled something that sounded like 'Stubborn child' under his breath, "Fine,"he sighed,"Live alone, be alone, chase my heels for the rest of your life,"_

_Itachi smirked smugly,"I intend to. I will never be alone, as long as I have created a bond, the string binding us together will never be severed,"_

_Madara erupted into loud booming laughter making Itachi's glare intensify._

_When the elder regained his composure he cough into his hand before flashing his eye -glowing in sick amusement- at Itachi,"You're funny,"_

_Itachi opened his mouth,"Big brother!," he promptly cut off by the excited voice of Sasuke. His sharingan activated and Madara rose his hands defensively, not saying a word._

_Itachi motioned his head to the tree tops above them then flicked his eyes over to the direction sasuke's voice had rang from._

_The elder chuckled lightly and nodded, jumping then gliding effortlessly onto a branch._

_"Big brother!," Sasuke called again._

_"Big brother," Madara mimicked in a high voice._

_Itachi shot a deadly glare up his teacher, before calling back to his little brother,"I'm over here Sasuke!,"_

_END DREAM!_

Madara blinked as a bright light shined into his eye, hissing and ducking his head down to avoid it.

The sun.

Evil thing, waking him up. Nobody woke the great Madara Uchiha without his consent! though there wasn't anything he could do about it, he silently swore his vendetta against the giant gas ball.

Stopping only when the soft warm mass he had his arms around shifted. He grinned victoriously when he opened his eyes and came face to face with a very sleepy looking Deidara, who rose a hand to show off an erect middle finger.

"You said you didn't give a fuck, so why stay?,"

Deidara brought his arm to rest on his hip, too tired to fight with the Uchiha right now,"Why did I bring you back to house? hmm," it was simply..._Repayment _for the bomb thing, sitting there for a while didn't hurt anything and now he didn't owe Madara a favor or whatever it is you owe someone when you accidentally almost kill them -but not really-.

No, wait it did hurt something, his ears.

The Iwa snorted in laughter.

"What's so funny?," Madara asked releasing Deidara to roll onto his back and stretch.

"You snore like a damn bear, yeah,"

The Uchiha brought his arms back down, feeling a little offended. Uchiha don't _snore_, especially not Madara, they growl in their sleep. That's how deeply ingrained their primal fight instincts are.

_Were._

Then again, they rarely got sick either.

Speaking of which.

"You know i just realized something," Madara said,"we've been together for a while and all this time I've been sick,"

"So? yeah,"

"_Soooooo_, why haven't you gotten sick?,"

Deidara answered with a thick layer of cockiness,"Guess my spirit is stronger than yours,"

"How does that answer my question?,"

"How does you questioning my answer hoping to gain a better answer for your question, answer your question? unless you already know the answer and are just being a dumbass, which wouldn't surprise me, hmm,"

The raven tilted his head, it was too early for solving riddles!,"What?,"

The blond rolled his eye,"Just shut up and let go, yeah, it's almost time for breakfast,"

**SKIP**

Konan casually walked up to the old familiar place from her childhood, she gently pushed on the broken door to make room for her self so she could step in.

The insides were had been torn apart, there was a hole in the roof, and reaching toward the sunlight were vines that overtook three wooden playing card sized planks that were hung on the wall, two of which were flipped 'up' showing the little frog symbol, the third one however was turn over.

"It's been so long, hasn't it Yahiko?,"

Konan smiled, sweet memories of the times the four of them spent together flipping through her mind like a picture book. She blinked and turned around, her eyes landing on the opposite wall.

"If only you were with us then," she said,"Maybe none of this would have happened,"

**TIME SKIP! After breakfast!**

"Madara?,"

Said man didn't take his eye away from the new mask he was spiffing up as he sat on the floor of the front room of the house with Deidara cooly leaned back again the wall next to him, half dozing, half watching him with mild curiosity, "Hn?,"

"What is the woman like? yeah,"

Madara blinked, "Depends, who are you talking about?," he asked warily, hoping he wasn't talking about the smelly prostitute from that one shop they went to -That will never be named or mentioned again-.

Deidara rose an eyebrow,"I heard that there was a woman in the Akatsuki, hmm," he explained slowly, like he was talking to a child.

Madara ignored it,"Oh, you mean Konan," he answered calmly, since the bomber was behind him he couldn't see the Uchiha's eye narrow. What did Deidara want to know about Konan for?

"Yeah, Konan,"Deidara said like he recognized the name, or maybe it was just Madara's mind playing tricks on him again,"What is she like? yeah,"

Madara took a second to think up the proper way to describe her,"She has a temper and is very protective of Leader and like Leader she believes that true beauty can only be seen once you've experienced some kind of emotional pain," He flipped the mask over to clean the inside, "And She hates me,"

He didn't look around, he didn't want to see the intrigued look he knew Deidara had on his face,"What does she think of art? hmm,"

"Hell if I know, she has an origami Jutsu, if that tells you anything,"

"It tells me enough," he could hear the smirk the the blonds voice.

Madara felt his chest tighten,"Don't get any idea's Deidara," he said, more harshly than he intended, "She already swore her love to some pathetic fool that killed himself for her Kami knows how long ago,"

Deidara glared half-heartedly at the back of his head,"I wasn't thinking anything, yeah,"

Madara grunted turning back to his mask,"Right," he turned his face away and took off his half mask before slipping on the new whole one.

**TBC**

**Super random fun fact: Kitsune doesn't translate literally to 'Fox' but actually means 'Come and sleep', this comes from the legend of many tailed foxes in japanese mythology :D**

**And ever so slowly things are going back to normal! Madara has his full mask back, Deidara's going to get his clay back, Zetsu is on their trail. Everything panning out well 8D Or is it? MWHAHAHA! **Thank you for reading! please review, favorite, blah blah blah! THANK YOU!


	14. Chapter 14

**i finished this early because the next chapter might take a while, It seems like it's going to be freaking long , plus I've been busy, having to deal with cousin. She won't leave me alone! ._. see ya'll next Wed or Monday or sometime! I don't know anymore.**

**0 0 0 1570 words - yeah really short T_T**

Madara pushed through the crowd of villagers all on their way to work, Deidara had gone off to find ingredients he needed for his clay -he figured it would be easier to just make it rather than buy it and run out and buy it and run out and so on so forth again and again.

The uchiha agreed, he liked that idea, less trips to town the better for him, his head was finally clearing up. He could think now and earlier that day he had thought up ways to keep Deidara alive while following through with his plans.

And it involved Genjutsu.

Brilliant right?

There was a nagging that said the plan was nothing but a betrayal but really, what was more the betrayal? Letting Deidara sacrifice himself for his plans or fight with him and keep him alive possibly at the loss of Deidara's very personality and will.

On second thought, neither of those sounded good.

Back to the drawing board.

Yay.

Why was he even thinking about this?~! More importantly why hadn't he noticed that he had stopped in front of a crafts stand and people were starting to give him strange looks.

He looked down, pretending to browse to negate the villagers attention, when he noticed something. A small wooden carving of a creature, he picked it up to examine the fine carefully crafted detail.

It was a humanoid creature painted purplish/green with the tiny protruding bones poking out from beneath a yellow and red makeshift poncho, on top of its head was a lightning symbol and its lips were pulled apart showing off its pointed teeth in a sinister smirk.

Madara eyes widened, it was him, that strange man from the forest.

"That is Shiro," The woman behind the counter said, "He is the evil spirit that lives in the forest, in his story it says that he was once a celestial being but did something wrong and was cast down to earth where he went around burning villages to the ground with his lightning jutsu, one day he came here to Kusa right at the same time a priestess form the local shrine had come to get supplies, she drove the him into the forest, where he remains sealed to this day. Pretty cool, huh?,"

Madara nodded absent mindedly, "That was quite the story," he said setting the carving back down.

"It's my favorite!," The girl chimed, taking her eyes away from when she noticed the two toned man walking up behind him. The action of her eyes doing a double take made the Uchiha raise an eyebrow.

There was somebody behind him, wasn't there?

He barely had time to register Zetsu's presence before said man made his presence known.

"**Madara! **_Fuck, finally!,"_ The two halves were rejoicing, thanking every God they could think of.

They didn't have to go out into that creepy fucking forest! Not that Zetsu had a problem with the forest, it was a lovely place, full of poisonous snakes, insects, spiders, plants. Basically a living cocktail of things that were set out to hurt him or scare his lighter side.

"Zetsu,"Madara said with some surprise,"What are you doing here?,"

"_**What do you mean**__**What are we doing**__**here?," **_The two halves chorused,**"Pain sent us to find you! **_Yeah he's kind of pissed off that you haven't reported in, in a while,"_

"I'm his superior, he doesn't have the rank to be cross with me,"

"_**That's not what he thinks,"**_ They chorused again flatly,_"Honestly Tobi, would it really have been such a hassle to just contact him?,"_

"How would I have done that, I don't have my ring," Madara deadpanned.

White Zetsu grinned sheepishly,_"_Right,_ we have it now," _Kuroi would have rolled his eyes if it didn't mean fighting with his other half about it later on,**"You could have teleported to the base,"**

"Actually..." the Uchiha trailed off, scratching at the part of his mask that covered his cheek.

Both sides gave him a strange look, making Madara sigh, it was such a weird story. Kind of long too, he had time but eventually it would time to go meet up with Dei, he wouldn't be able to stand here for however long it would take to fill Zetsu in on everything that's happened.

As much as Madara wanted to tell it, he decided to hold on off on the story, at least until they got back to...

Madara put a hand on the stand to steady himself as the world started to swirl around like water going down the drain.

To the base...

The sides of his vision went dark, narrowing his world until all that he could still make out was Zetsu, who's face was contorted in a kind of dumbfounded surprise.

_'Oh Kami ,someone make the spinning stop'_

"_**Madara," **_Zetsu's voice echoed before the whole world went black.

Every time Deidara leaves his sight, something bad happens.

(A/N:Man I make him pass out a lot XD)

_Flashback_

_Itachi stood in the northern training field, his posture fixed strait backed and his bored gaze set on his sensei, who was etching lines in the dirt with a stick._

_Madara pulled the stick away once he was finished and stood from his crouch,"Today we're going to do something different," he told the young Uchiha, "I am going to show you how to reverse time,"_

_Itachi crossed his arms,"You can't do that," he said somewhat smugly, knowing he was right._

_The elder chuckled, "You are right, __**I**__ can't do it, but my younger brother could. It is a technique he created. it allows the user to go back in time up to five minutes," he raised the hand not gripping the stick to show off all five fingers spread wide._

_He saw the boys eyes glow questioningly while his smug air drifted off with the breeze, that was the same look he gave when he wanted to say something but didn't know if he could or not. _

_Or rather, if he __**should**__ or not._

_"Yes?," he motioned for the boy to go on._

_Itachi pulled his arms closer to himself before speaking,"If you can go back in time five minutes, then why not go back in time immediately after you cast the technique the first time to make it ten minutes? or fifteen or twenty?,"_

_"Maa," Madara pointed at the design he drew with a stick, which was beside his foot, "Tell me what this is and you'll have figured it out on your own,"_

_Itachi scoffed, he didn't even need to look at it, he had watched him draw the damn thing after all,"It is the seal that appears around the blood during a summoning,"_

_Madara nodded, motioning for him to take the concept further. _

_"So...This technique lets you summon yourself?,"_

_"Precisely," _

_Itachi couldn't hold back the childish blink of confusion. Both from not understanding how one could summon oneself and _why _Madara hadn't just come out and __**said **__what the technique did instead of sitting on the ground for an hour drawing out the design._

_the small raven didn't expect his sensei to spoon feed him the answers to everything, but pussy-footing around the bush every time he tried to actually teach Itachi something new was unnecessary._

_And in Itachi's opinion crappy teaching._

_No wonder Madara's past students never made it off the field of their first major battle._

_"You see" Itachi was pulled out of his thoughts by the beginning of what he knew would be a long explanation, " Every time someone summons something, say an animal, from the world they live in you are dragging them through time as well as space. Yet nothing ages on their way, do you know why Itachi?," the child shook his head,"Because time makes up for itself, it is never ending and every second is a new beginning, that is how time goes on forever,"_

_Itachi squinted, "I think I get it...Sort of," he said warily, "_Basically_, time rejuvenates itself every second and when you go through a mass of time at the speed of a summoning without going to another dimension you can actually go back in time because-"_

_Madara interrupted him,"Yes, yes, yes enough showing off your intelligence," Itachi frowned, while his sensei smirked and shifted into his horse stance,"show me your skills instead. Now that you understand it, are you ready to give it a try?,"_

_Itachi nodded._

_"Do you remember those hand seals I taught you?,"_

_Another nod._

_"Good, when you're ready,"_

_The tiny ninja, took a deep breath, closed his eyes and stood there. A passing breeze being the only thing to move any part of him, before his eyes snapped open, his hands flashed together so fast that if it wasn't for the sharingan Madara wouldn't have even noticed and clapped his hands together disappearing then, reappearing behind Madara with a kunai in his hand, thrusting it upwards towards his sensei's back._

_The elder flashed behind Itachi, narrowly avoiding the deadly accurate blow._

_"Well done," Madara said with a dip of his head._

(A/N:Crappy jutsu is crappy, hope everybody understood it XD)

_end flashback_

Itachi stared, eyes unblinking towards the boarders beyond the Ame village entrance. His hand gripping the conical hat that swung by his side.

His lips pulled back into an empty smirk.

**TBC**

**At the beginning of this chapter I was reminded that I didn't explain Itachi's 'reverse time' jutsu. So I put it in here 8D I thought it was an interesting idea, but man it hurt my brain trying to find a way to explain it XD**


	15. Chapter 15  Showdown Part 1

**Tee hee, I got to put off school for 2 hours a day so I could write and rewatch some episodes. Also I do read Under The mask by Another Face In The Crowd, but i did not rip her latest chapter off. I swear on my manga collection that any simularities are a coincidence. **

**PS: This chapter was going over 7500 words, I clipped it and am working on the second part right now!**

**0 0 0 - 5550 words!**

His head was ringing like a siren, pounding like a hammer into a barrel of unfinished Mochi. his vision was black and muffled in his ears was the sound of crackling, like splitting wood on a fire.

For the first time in the past...However long this whole adventure with Deidara gone on for, he didn't have to sit and think about what had happened before he ended up in the black void he was by now used to.

He did have one thought though,_'Kami-sama I wish Zetsu had faster reflexes,'_ his eyes blinked open, and through the blurred image he saw a yellow ink splotch, only it wasn't an ink splotch, a few blinks later Madara saw it was none other than Deidara -not that he had thought anything different- sitting across from him on the side of a roaring, crackling fire which he was poking with a long blackened stick.

It looked normal enough, except it was all _wrong_.

Why were they in the forest? It wasn't like Dei would need to take a break, unless he hadn't got his clay, in which case how did he get him all the way out here to begin with.

It was a stupid to consider Deidara had put out the effort to carry him by himself -he didn't treat Madara any better than he had when Tobi still existed, the rare 'I'll help you but I still hate you so, so much' moments were still that, _RARE_-, no he would make Zetsu do it.

speaking of the plant man where was he? the Uchiha seriously doubted that the he would have left, not after how he reacted when Madara passed out for no fucking reason.

Even if Kuroi didn't want to stay the white side had control over their entire body most of the time -when the white half didn't lose in the dreaded ultimate game of rock paper scissors-, he would have stayed unless he went to get food. For himself of course, Deidara would kill Zetsu if he found a human ear in his soup again, It was too unsanitary for him.

Why was Deidara's hair back in a pony tail? Well, that _is _how he likes his hair, he could have picked up a tie at the store, there was no real mystery there it was just strange seeing him with it again after so long.

Why did he have a cloak? Madara knew for an absolute fact that he only left his own at the valley, Deidara lost his in the fight against Shiro...The weird undead nightmare fairytale creature thing. Zetsu could have had a spare on him, Kami knows he was always ripping them while he was tunneling, but it wouldn't have fit the blond, not like this one did.

And why was he so indifferent towards his bad arm?~! That was what made Madara the most suspicious, it wasn't the obvious backwardness of the situation, it was how Deidara was holding his arm. He had it resting on his leg, forearm directly on his knee, wound down.

Deidara wasn't a wuss -as everyone knows- but he made it more than obvious that his arm hurt.

And Herbs only relieve so much pain.

What in the name of rikudo, Kami-sama and Jashin is going on?~!

"'Bout damn time you woke up, yeah,"Deidara said, tossing the stick into the fire before standing and walking over to the down elder, he dozily watched Dei pull his cloak off a branch above his head and toss it onto his lap, "Put it on! We don't have all day, hmm. Leader is expecting us in five minutes,"

Madara mimicked absent mindedly,"Leader,"

"Yes Madara, Leader, remember him? yeah," he asked in a mocking tone.

The Uchiha looked up to him, pulling himself out of his 'I think I'm going insane' moment, more than annoyed at the bombers sarcastic/hostile attitude, "What's your problem,"

Deidara snorted,"_You_, hmm, now hurry up,"

_MEETING!_

(Couldn't find a way to transition from that XD)

As the others gathered, Madara -already perched on the thumb of the demonic statues left hand across from Deidara, who was on the right index finger-, after a curious look around to the subtle changes nagato had made to the unconventional meeting spot, took note that there was another addition to the eyes of the sealing statue and on the ground was a red hair man.

The Yonbi jinchuuriki.

It was funny, Zetsu hadn't mentioned that they had captured the four tails or that they had sealed the three tails -which Deidara and he had captured before their mission to Kusa-. Not like he was given much time to, but still.

"There is some important information I need to share with you, it has been almost a month and a half since we've had contact with a certain someone," he felt Pain's eyes zoom over to him.

Not that he cared, he was too busy pondering what the rinnegan holder had just said -Nagato couldn't do shit to him in hologram form anyway so 'nit- . It had already been that long? There was no way, unless he had been unconscious one too many times and lost all track of what day it was.

Yeah, he could buy that.

It made more sense than Nagato forgetting how to use a calendar.

Despite his inner-whatever it would be called, Madara still tuned his ear to what Pain was saying,"Firstly I would like everyone to know that the Kyuubi has summoned an eight man cell to go after Sasuke Uchiha, who is currently traveling the country side with a group of three men, you may be familiar with one of them Kisame, his name is Suigetsu,"

The mere mention of the name Sasuke's got the masked ninja's full attention. -He was important to the plan after all-

If what Madara had predicted would happen has indeed happened then he would need to set in motion the new alternate plan he had come up with.

It was nothing drastically different from his original plan, just something that would ensure Deidara's well being, no matter how much the blond man set out to ensure the opposite.

Obviously the genjutsu thing wouldn't work. For several reasons.

But, constantly sticking close by Deidara would. The best part about that is can send Zetsu in his place if ever he needed to stay behind or go on another mission. Both the Uchiha and the plant man were invulnerable to the bombers-err Bombs.

No matter how much Deidara got annoyed he couldn't kill either of them. He would stay safe, Madara would be 'happy' or something close enough to it, and his plan could move along like normal otherwise.

It was brilliant! No really this time it was.

Madara saw Kisame nod his head to their fearless leader's question,"Maa, the younger of the Hozuki brothers, strange to hear he's ended up on Sasuke's team, he was such a cute kid,"

Deidara clenched his fists,"That little bastard Naruto and his rinka-dink team of friends are after Itachi and his punk brother, yeah. Itachi is mine to kill, if he's a threat I'll just have to take him out too,"

'_No you won't,' _Both Madara and Itachi thought quickly. Though it was for two completely different reasons.

"Hold your ranting until I am finished Deidara,"

Deidara grumbled under his breath.

"Wait a second Leader," Every one looked to Kisame, "Sasuke was working with Orochimaru, so what is he doing traveling the country?,"

"That is the main reason I brought you all here," Nagato said not wasting a second,"The snake sannin Orochimaru has been killed and his killer was none other than Sasuke Uchiha,"

"Damn it all, I was supposed to kill Orochimaru! yeah," Deidara cursed.

"Deidara, one more outburst like that and I will not hold back a punishment,"

Madara glared, flashing his sharingan threateningly but Nagato didn't falter in the slightest.

It was like he didn't give a crap anymore.

"Aw man, I wanted to see how he would die!," The shark ninja whined, "I missed teh chance to see Hidan's and Kakuzu's," even in shadowed holograms you could still tell he was pouting.

"Kisame, you can mock Orochimaru as much as you want seeing as he was defective. But Hidan and Kakuzu were still part of the organization at the time of their deaths, show some respect,"

The sound of Kisame sighing softly spoke his apology to Pain for him.

"Good, now that everyone is aware of the upcoming threat, we can get on with the sealing process,"

Madara grimaced, oh come on fate! He just woke up couldn't he have one stick of dango? he was freaking starving! he didn't want to stand there for three days.

Ah well, it's not like there was much he could do about it, catching the Bijuu was the one part of his plan he couldn't change.

**Time skip to the first night of sealing**

The first day had gone alright and it was now nearing midnight. That's what Madara figured anyway, seeing there was no moon to go by he was stuck using the water leaking through the cracks in the rocks -from the 'pool' Kisame had created on the...Well what would be the roof of this hideout with his water justu- that ran down and dripped from the stalagmites on the top of the cave into the puddle below to count the seconds.

Every drip was a second and so far he had counted thirty-six thousand.

That was ten hours out of seventy-two.

Only sixty-two hours, twenty minutes, thirty-nine seconds left to go.

*_Drip*_

Thirty-eight.

**Second day**

**45 hours, 50 minutes,16 seconds left**

There was a bug.

There was bug on Madara's face.

Not just any bug either, it was a giant beetle. Ironically the size and shape of a certain crevice . One that will be mentioned in a moment.

Before anyone gets smart, no it wasn't on his hologram. It was on his real body which was sitting out in the sun somewhere near a shaded rock Deidara refused to share.

Now Madara Uchiha was not afraid of bugs, he didn't find them icky, he didn't find them scary, they were just there.

But this particular bug happened to be crawling across his mask, ever slowly, with each movement of one of its six legs it was making its way to the nice 'hole' that granted Madara the ever wonderful gift of sight.

To put it simply the damn thing was about an inch or so away from crawling into his eye hole.

These three days couldn't go by fast enough.

**Third day**

**0 hours, 5 minutes, 20 seconds left.**

There was only one word, or noise, that could describe the third day of the sealing process.

AHHHHHH!

Yes, a scream.

And that was no joke, Madara really did feel like screaming at the top of his lungs and pulling his hair out. He always hated the process of sealing the Bijuu, standing there for three fucking days, hands in the exact same position.

No food breaks.

No water breaks (Which was why it only lasted for three days)

No _BATHROOM _breaks (and newbie Deidara had wondered why the miser Kakuzu had never pitched a fit about how long most of them stayed in the shower for, it was because most of them stunk to the high heavens after sealing's, something he soon came to understand first hand)

And finally the worst thing anyone could possibly think of. not only did they have to stand there for three days starving, thirsty, tired and bored but they had to look at the exact same faces, rocks, rocks and did he mention rocks? for three days strait.

Yes Madara had never really complained since it meant he got to 'look at' Dei for a long time and not get the piss bombed out of him, but seeing as any sane man would easily snap and kill the most beautiful woman on earth if he had to stare at her and think about random shit for three days strait with no breaks, even that bit of pleasure Madara got out of the experience didn't hold his boredom stricken minds attention for very long.

"Alright," Pain -finally!- spoke.

The red cloud that was the demon once sealed within him rolled out of the Yonbi Jinchuuriki's mouth and drifted into the demon statues unbridled one, making yet another eye appear out of the blindfold that once covered all nine.

Yes! It was OVER! Madara really didn't care if it was uncharacteristic of him to be excited about something that didn't involve mass genjutsu, world domination or Deidara, It felt good to be able to move again.

"Man my back hurts," Kisame groaned, rolling his arms back to crack his shoulders.

Pain watched him jerk his head to the side to rid himself of a cramp -which only acted to make it worse- before speaking again,"That wraps things up here, remember to watch yourselves, especially you Itachi," he said rubbing his own neck, feeling the pain Kisame must have felt.

"Hn," Itachi grunted, before jumping from his perch and heading for the exit without a single word. His blue skinned partner quickly followed his lead.

Then one by one the remaining four released their holograms, their consciences returning to their stiff bodies.

First action the black haired ninja made -in contrast to his partners- was pulling up his mask to make the beetle inside fall out.

The second was to scratch his nose now that he had the chance.

Third was to stretch as Deidara stood.

Fourth was to mimic said blond man, his joints protesting by making loud tearing sounds **(1)** as he raised up.

Deidara pulled back the sleeve of his cloak, looking at it with a sly grin, "Looks like it's all healed up, yeah,"

Madara stared at the two toned skin on his partners arm with interest, searching for one thing he knew should be there, only to see a scar pink risen scar in place of it.

Damn, just how long had he been out?

The terrorist pulled his sleeve back down and made the motion to pull back the length of his cloak to reach inside. His hand disappeared into one of the double pouched packs on his hips, the mouth on his hand drooling, and came out closed, the tendons on his hand flexing as the mouth chewed.

In one throw two little clay creations flew threw the air and with signal from Deidara's hand sign they grew to a monstrous size.

Big birdies.

Madara leaped onto his bird in a single bound and plopped down, feet pulled in, "Which one are we going after first?," he asked.

Deidara -who also had jumped on his bird- said nothing, keeping his concentration on controlling the birds to rise.

"I'm going to assume we're going after Sasuke first and just shut up,"

Wherever they ended up Madara's only wish was that it wasn't a forest.

**0 0 0**

Konan looked over the edge of the stone island she was standing on as she tossed a bundle of mismatched wild flowers onto her reflection, she then clapped her hands and said a small prayer.

**KoKo-chaaaaaan~ :D**

Far away from the wandering Itachi and Kisame, who after the sealing were readying for the events readying to take place in the not so distant future, another Uchiha and his marry band of fellow teenagers with unique abilities all their own, were in the process of splitting up and heading in different directions.

The ever ecstatic Suigetsu was showing off a sharp pointy smile at the thought of leaving behind the pink haired Karin to go settle his own business, said girl was pouting, trying desperately to shield her hair with her cloak while at the same time trying to keep her glasses clean as flocks of birds flew over them, Jugo was strait faced though on the inside he was just as excited as Suigetsu was and Sasuke was being Sasuke.

Stoic hardened face, bored eyes and only mild annoyance at the epic play going on behind him, Sasuke.

"Oh shut up already would you?~!," Karin screeched at Suigetsu.

The white haired boy brought his hands out from their place behind his head and placed them on his hips, "And why should I?," he asked, giving the girl a mocking look.

"Because it is annoying Sasuke!,"

"The only thing that is annoying him is you, loud mouth,"

"Water freak!,"

"Masochist,"

"Idiot!,"

"Whore,"

"Ass wipe,"

"Cun-,"

"-Ice cream," Jugo's strange choice of words for his interruption shut the bickering teens up quickly, both of them looking confused and a little scared.

After a moment Suigetsu shrugged and stalked off heading south toward the town close by to track down Kakuzu's bookies. Jugo did the same and headed south-east sticking close to the town but staying in the forest, while Karin still stood in her place watching them leave.

"Finally they're gone," she sighed, taking off her glasses, she put the temple tip in her mouth and spun around. A pink world appearing behind her, "What do you want to do, sasuke?," she blinked, her mouth pulling into a frown, eyes glued to the spot where Sasuke had been standing a minute before,"Sasuke?,"

**0 0 0**

"I found him, hmm," Deidara said, clicking the zoom on his camera to pull back from the target he spotted in the forest below them.

"That was quicker than I thought it would be," Madara grumbled, none too happy with the cluster of trees below them. The universe just loves to hit those raw nerves doesn't it,"Now which one is it? The Kyuubi or Sasuke?,"

The blond didn't answer his question, or make any sign at all that he had even heard his partner speak,"Such luck, let's go Tobi," he swerved the birds off the strait course they were flying.

"But which one?,"

line

Sasuke walked into the vast open green field, the shouts from Karin still ringing in his ears though the hot pink haired girl had stopped long ago. Her voice haunted even his day wanders it appears.

Had she not been so useful he might have left her in the forest long ago.

He suddenly slowed his saunter to a stop, boredly swiveling his body around back to the tree line and cocking his head, "Don't play me for a fool, I can sense you,"

Madara wasn't surprised Sasuke has sensed him, that had been the intention of him sneaking up behind him, little son of a whore didn't have to act all high and mighty about it.

Sasuke blinked absently.

"Well, well would you look at how big you've grown," The elder Uchiha walked out from behind the tree he had 'hidden' behind,"Last time I saw you, you barely came up to my knee," as he walked into the sun light Sasuke narrowed his eyes, spotting the infamous red clouds he recognized without a second thought.

"That outfit, you're part of the Akatsuki aren't you," he sneered.

"Poor little Sasuke, picking and choosing what you hear I see," The mysterious ninja put his hands on his hips,"I get it, I get it recollections of the past don't interest you, but what would I wonder? Man, if only Itachi were here, he would probably know,"

Sasuke's eyes flashed,"You know of Itachi Uchiha?,"

Madara cooed,"Aw that's sweet, even after all this time you still hold onto him like a brother," his ears twitched at the sound of Sasuke's blade being drawn from its sheath, "I mean, you still call him 'Uchiha' after all, one would think if you truly hated him you wouldn't bless him with the name of the clan he slaughtered,"

"You know nothing,"

"Correction, I know everything," the masked ninja raised a finger in a 'didn't you know' gesture. Making the youngest Uchiha glare daggers at him, secretly wishing death upon him.

"Oooh, scary," Madara smirked beneath his mask, seeing Deidara narrowing in on the youngest Uchiha with the two birds they had come here on with a dive bomb.

A loud cry of Katsu was drowned out by the large explosion two the works of art made.

Deidara jumped out of the rising dust cloud that shielded the giant crater and -hopefully- the corpse of one snot nosed Uchiha brat, landing a few feet away from Madara's side.

"hm, so sad he seemed to have so much potential," Madara said apathetically.

"Yes, and I crushed that potential into the dirt with my art! yeah," Deidara exclaimed grinning madly in victory.

The Uchiha chuckled,"Well done Deidara,"

The blond scoffed, still maintaining his less than famous grin,"I don't need your praise, just seeing his life less body will be good enough for...me," the last word was barely a whisper as Deidara looked on in disbelief.

The dust was being blown away by a breeze, revealing more and more of a giant white snake summoning that surrounded the unscathed still standing Sasuke -not even in the crater might Madara add-, his dark orbs slowly bleeding into red.

"Seems we spoke too soon," Madara rubbed the back of his neck.

Deidara growled, "To think this shit killed Orochimaru, hmm,"

Madara hummed, knowing what Deidara was getting at,"He's young yes but if his reflexes are that good you should be careful," every word was a waste of breath.

"Fuck being careful! yeah. I'm going to kill him!," Deidara laughed.

Sasuke didn't even blink under the blonds sinister gaze, the snake summon poofing away. he opened his mouth and spoke,"Where is Itachi Uchiha?," Deidara's eyes widened, "Tell me and I might consider sparing your life,"

The cockiness.

The assurance.

The pride.

The iwa's expression hardened, "Uchiha blood...That's the only reason he was able to kill Orochimaru, yeah," he closed his eyes briefly to calm himself before putting on a casual demeanor, "He confuses good genes and a blessed lineage for real power and ability,"

Blue met red as the two enemies stared each other down,not even the birds made a sound, they too were waiting to see who would pull the first punch.

Madara dipped his head.

Sasuke's hair swayed, his feet pushing him faster than either Akatsuki expected, he was almost a blur had it not been for the sheen of Kusanagi.

The elder Uchiha quickly moved to avoid the blade after Deidara had jumped from its path and into the trees, barely missing it by a slice of his cloak.

The neat cut made the two now separated pieces fall away from each other, though they were still connected by the rest of the fabric.

Sasuke grunted, not believing that he missed, _'This guy,_'

Madara hopped, trying to regain his balance as he landed a good fifty feet away from the younger Uchiha.

Breathing a sigh of relief once he was standing on both feet again, he looked up to Deidara just as the blond ducked his hands back into his clay packs,"And he's off again,"

Deidara pulled his hands out and cupped them together, letting the mouths spit out a dozen of his miniature spiders into them.

Sasuke eyed them warily, noticing the chakra the bomber was pumping into them with his sharingan.

"Stay back! yeah,"

Madara stood there under the rain of detonating clay dumbstruck, his partner, the person that made him feel gooey inside, the prettiest boy he had ever seen in his threw bombs at him.

They wouldn't kill him no, hell if it was C1 it would barely scratch him, it was simply the principle.

You don't throw weapons intended to hurt or kill at your allies during a real fight, that's how vendetta's start.

Hell that's how the Uchiha and Senju clans got their start.

Sort of.

There had been a vendetta involved.

Sasuke flicked his hand at the tiny creations, sending a flurry of chakra incased senbon into them, pinning them to the trees and the ground.

Madara fell back in a very Tobi like manner when several passed by his head, it was a natural reaction when such a personality has been engrained into your everyday life.

Of course now that meant he was on the fucking ground, sitting like a like a little kid, a kid surrounded by mini bombs.

Fun.

"Um Deidara," The bomber's hands had already weave 'd the seals, all he had to do was detonate them, hearing Madara's call and seeing him partner on the ground so close to them, Deidara pulled the two fingers holding the last sign down into his fist.

Good, Madara let out a laugh in relief. What? It was the principle! Like he said!

The momentary pause that followed his awkward little laugh gave him enough time to tune his ears to the sound of rustling leaves. It was so quiet it was almost like a mouse running through the forest in autumn, soon after the rustle Sasuke flashed behind Deidara, his weapon drawn.

"Behind you!,"

The blond managed to match Sasuke's speed for a split second, enough time to throw the remaining spider he had left in his hand at the Uchiha, "Katsu!,"

The branch and the two shinobi were overwhelmed by a flash of fire and puff of smoke.

"You stupid cocky dumbass blond," Madara said in mild distaste, it felt weird insulting Deidara like that even if it was for the assurance Dei would head for his voice instead of go after Sasuke.

Plus he still had to get the bomber back for those insults back at the forest house, no better time than the present.

Deidara burst through the smoke and slid to a stop next to his partner,"Who are you calling stupid?~! yeah," he glared, trying to shrug his sliced up cloak back up onto his shoulder.

"So you are okay," a little tattered but okay.

"I used C1," his way of figuring out the enemies tact's, Madara noted, "If it had been anything stronger I would have been in a bind, hmm," the blond turned to Sasuke who had followed him out of the trees.

"You really are quite fast, yeah. But if i can catch him," he jabbed at finger over at the masked ninja who muttered an 'Eh?,', "I'm sure i can catch you,"

The elder raven didn't take any offense to that, only because it was coming from Deidara. Had it been anyone else they would have ended up with a kunai in their skull and their eyes in a jar.

"Before that, how about a quick game, yeah," Deidara went back to his clay, letting his hands gobble up as much as they could, then held them out.

The now soupy white clay oozed out of the mouths and splattered on the ground, a long string kept Deidara and the clay connected so he could still pump chakra into his creations, the clay bubbled and clumped together forming abstract looking creatures .

Oh yes, Madara liked games, especially this one.

(A/N: at this point I lost my muse so forgive me)

"I have no time for child's games," the youngest Uchiha said in his usual monotone, using his sword to slash through the clay soldiers, the blade stretched the creation but didn't cut through.

Sasuke pulled back on his sword, the clay stretched with his tugs refusing to let go. Finally Sasuke did, so he could jump out of the way of the oncoming punches, before ducking to get in close and land a few hits of his own.

His hand sparked with chidori as he slashed through one of the soldiers, splitting it in half. The remaining quickly retaliated, distracting the young Uchiha while Deidara loaded the two severed pieces with chakra to reanimate them as separate beings.

All of them once again going after Sasuke.

"And I'm not done yet!," Deidara laughed.

The fight went on, playing out as it had done before, Sasuke using his chidori to slice his enemies to pieces and eventually regain his sword, Deidara using those pieces to create more soldiers, trying to overwhelm the young raven.

Sasuke's eyes flicked back and forth along the circle of clay works surrounding him, the blonds evil cackles sounding from the sidelines.

"Almost show time," Deidara waited for the perfect moment, "Ha!," half of the soldiers bursting into a grand fireball catching Sasuke within it, seeing this the blond grinned.

"Don't count your chickens yet Dei," Madara crossed his arms over his chest, Deidara snorted not heeding his warning until Sasuke broke through the blast and retreated back into the trees,"As expected," he said with a nod of his head.

"Oi!,"

The other half of the walking works of art headed off after the youngest Uchiha, darting through the branches, using his blade to slice through the tree trunks as he flew by them and for some of those works trailing him it was the end.

Sasuke slowed on a branch, his biggest mistake yet. Taking the halt as its chance one of the creations latched onto his ankle, inviting the rest of them to clump together on his body, forming an explosive cocoon.

"How's that~!," Deidara said, an explosion worthy of C2 caliber lighting up the forest.

"Oh boy," Madara grumbled.

"Seems he was all posture and no action, yeah"

Out of the smoke -much like how the littlest Uchiha that appeared with it- popped a substitution log. Deidara could hold back the twitch of his eyes at the sight of it. (A/N: LOGGED! sorry I had to XD)

All of that work and the fucker still got away from the blast.

Why couldn't he just stand still and accept his death like a good shinobi.

Madara chuckled, "So much for your super flat,"

Deidara took an offended stance,"OI! What the hell, who's side are you on?~!," he cursed defensively.

Madara shrugged nonchalantly,"Yours, naturally. But that doesn't mean I can't be impressed by the enemies tactics," he said as his partner once again went for his clay.

Is it really surprising, it isn't like Dei had a sword on him.

Deidara clapped his hands together, interlocking the palms flat against each other,'He's more than I bargained for, looks like I'll have to level it up!,' he thought, his mouths working the C2.

"Huh?," The masked ninja gazed over the shorter artists shoulder, laughing at the figure that appeared in Deidara's hands when he pulled them apart, "Oh-ho, kid you better stand on your toes, this is his favorite piece of art," he said.

The two of them were enveloped in a large poof of smoke, leaving Sasuke to look on un-amused. When the cloud cleared, behind the partners was a large clay dragon, larger than anything Deidara had used yet, though it was longer than it was tall.

With its tail cut into a couple dozen sections, wrapping around tree trunks.

"The C2 dragon, yeah," Sasuke looked to the bomber, who had situated himself on the beasts head,"Do you remember what to do? hmm,"

Madara nodded.

"Good, get to it!," Deidara rejoined his hands in its signature seal, the action made the end section of the dragons tail disappear, sucked up into its body, not a second later its jaw dropped open releasing a few hundred spiders.

"That huge thing is also an explosive," the elder heard the youngest among them mumble to himself. Heh, the brat had no idea just what the dragon could do.

"It's up to you," Deidara told the taller of the pair of Akatsuki.

"Roger," Madara lazily saluted.

Sasuke flicked his sword,"You both are proving to be quite the nuisance," he grumbled charging forward with his blade ready to strike.

That's right little Sasuke, charge right in.

"Witness the power of my super flat! hmm," Another part of the dragons tail vanished, and once again a creature appeared in its mouth. This time smaller -but still quite large- version of the C2 creation that had spit it up.

It soared off of its perch and flew after Sasuke. He turned quickly and ran the opposite direction away from it, with a couple flaps of its wings the smaller dragon had caught up with ease.

Exploding at the cry of its creator it sent the young raven into the air backward a good fifty feet. Sasuke steadied himself, reassuming his usual posture.

His mind pondering the bomb, it was different than those sent at him earlier had been, it seemed to have been guided. He turned his attention back to the giant explosive that was rising into the air, making note that the masked ninja was no where in sight.

Sasuke's hand sparked with the one technique that seemed to work against these clay enemies, extending the small blade that appeared in his hand after the terrorist. It stopped short of hitting the dragon, letting Deidara take his own note, "A five meter reach, how useless is that, yeah," he said, mocking the boy.

"So he figured it out," Madara said, having heard the above commotion -though muffled- through the walls of earth around him.

"That lightning blade is one of the techniques kakashi of the Sharingan knows, is it not. I must give you props for manipulating it like that, not like it will do you any good,"

Sasuke shifted his weight, waiting for Deidara to use his dragon again.

This time the creation was pig like, though it still had a dragon like quality - Eg, wings-. he found them to be interesting in a repetitive kind of way. The only major difference between these and what had been thrown at him before being size and how much damage they could do.

"This one is even more powerful than the others," 

**TBC~next chapter!**

**(Sucky ending is sucky)**

**(1). Yes tearing sounds, like velcro. I have a bum knee, I speak from experience :p**

**Thank you for reading, please do whatevery ou want, I don't care as long as you guys enjoy it. See you maybe tomorrow or Saturday!**


	16. Chapter 16 Showdown Part 2

**The day after I posted the last chapter I stupidly slammed one of my fingers in a car door, that isn't an excuse the jerk is killing me DX. typing with one hand is hard...**

**Just gotta squeeze this in here real quick because anyone who can read 16 chapters of this story deserves praise- Thankies to: Yuti-chan, DragonFire44, Lazy Gaga, Queenof fanficworldlovegunner, Khorale. (And Nano Rain for unrelated fav ^_^)**

**0 0 0 - 5504 words! WOOT!- 0 0 0**

_"This one is even more powerful than the others,"_

The 'small' -if it could even be classified as such being the size of a grown man- dragon flapped its wings to dislodge itself out of the larger dragons mouth and plummeted with little control toward Sasuke. Hitting the ground it did what all explosives do, it exploded, and Sasuke did what he had done this entire fight.

He jumped backwards after barely managing to miss being hit, only this time he wasn't lucky enough to substitute his way out, as his foot sunk into the ground and a bright light surrounded him.

"Gottcha," Deidara grinned, gliding his creation over the cloud the blast from the mine had created,"Is he dead? yeah,"

Through the lightening cover of smoke and dust Deidara gapped at the sight of a winged, long haired teenager in place of the youngest Uchiha. He 'ch'd',"Orochimaru's curse seal," he grumbled,"He even has wings, to think he dodge the explosion just by flying around,"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, the ground a hundred yards away from him cracking before the other Akatsuki popped out like a daisy out of the snow.

"Deidara! The traps are all set!," The masked ninja called to his partner.

The blond nodded,"Well done, now get out of here!,"

Madara used the ground around him to lift himself out the hole and take off running to the tree line.

Sasuke turned his attention from the running masked man back to the bomber circling like a vulture from above,_'Guided bombs from above and landmine's below, they thought this through,'_ he thought somewhat bitterly.

Slowly he came to the realization that this wasn't a random run in -not like he ever thought it was to begin with - They sought him out. By why? What does the Akatsuki want with him? or was it even the Akastuki at all. Was it just this man and his partner.

"The C2 mines restrict your movement on the ground, giving me more accuracy from up here, yeah, watch your step Uchiha, one wrong move and you'll blow yourself up," Deidara said smugly.

The youngest Uhciha snorted,"What a cheap move," he said loud enough for the Iwa to hear.  
>It was faint but his words did meet Deidara's ears,"Hmm?,<p>

Sasuke went on to explain,"Pinning me in one place so your attacks will hit, hovering just out of my attack range...It's cheap, like stabbing someone in the back," he smirked maliciously, knowing that he hit a nerve.

The only thing this Akatsuki had used in their entire fight were those clay monsters of his and he boasted about them like they were the best thing in all the five nations. If insulting them didn't get him to lose his temper like Sasuke wanted him to, nothing would.

Deidara stared at him oddly, before bursting out in a full blown hearty laugh,"Isn't that laughable! An Uchiha lecturing me on fair fighting! hmm," he wiped his eyes were a small tear had collected. He shifted his hand into his detonation sign, still laughing lightly,"i wonder how well you will fair, dodging my art with those injured feet of yours,"

Sasuke once again witnessed sections of the dragons tail vanish, only this time it was two instead of only one. If the others had been as large as they were with just one section of clay, how large would this one be with two?

His question was answered when the dragons mouth filled up so much that it was forced open by the expanding creation inside. Another dragon the same size as the largest dragons head.

The young raven stretched his wings, waiting for the right moment to take off.

"Like I'll let you fly off!," The smaller clay dragon shot out of the cavern like a rocket, narrowing in, "KATSU!,"

The explosion was gigantic, ten times larger than the rest of them had been. Madara -standing on a branch-rose his arms to shield himself from the bright fire ball.

Despite the size of the blast and the power that went along with it, Sasuke had once again cheated death, though he had lost his sword -which landed a few feet away and buried in the earth, sparking and ringing like a bell- and something very important to his curse seal state.

"You used one your wings to shield yourself," Deidara took in the sight of the burnt bleeding stump were one of the Uchiha's wings used to be on his back,"looks like you can't fly anymore," he smirked.

"He's getting in quite a few hits, it'll be interesting to see how long he can keep it up before I have to step in," Madara said leaning up against the trunk of teh tree on which he was perched.

Sasuke wasn't going to put up with Deidara's cockiness, he was going to show off his abilities too, even if he was missing a wing. And something told Madara that by the end of this fight, one of them was going to be pushed to the breaking point.

"I'll put you out of your misery with this one, hmm," he heard Deidara say, creating another large mini dragon -as confusing as that is-.

With the grim reaper literally looking him in the eye Sasuke pushed through the pain he felt in his back, to pull the threads that he had attached to two of his most favorite weapons earlier.

Two giant shurikens came flying at the blond from behind him, one heading towards both shoulders. Deidara maneuvered his giant creation out of their way, dodging them with ease, with nothing to hit they simply buried into the ground.

"You thought something like THAT would hit me? yeah," Deidara scoffed in a slightly offended tone.

Unknown to the terrorist Sasuke had used that time to stand up and ready himself to dodge the explosive he knew was coming his way.

When Deidara released it and with it barreling towards him, the ex Konoha ninja leaped to the side, out of his little crater, using his one wing to give him enough momentum to glide just above the ground.

Deidara couldn't believe his eyes, the little fool was opening himself up to both of the dangers that opposed him,"There's no place for a foothold, that was your safe zone, the second you land you'll be blown to shit!,"

Sasuke planted his foot on the hilt of sword, his hand sparking as his chidori blade expanded.

"He used the sword as a foothold, that's quite clever," Madara commented, not noticing just how close Deidara and Sasuke were now, until the chidori blade sliced through the dragons wing, throwing off its balance. Meaning It was going down, fast.

_'He threw his sword on purpose and he used the momentum his remaining wing gave him to reach it,' _Deidara thought as his creation plummeted.

Sasuke once again tugged on the wires that connected him to the two giant shuriken that he used as a diversion tact, sending them back towards the bomber, only this time -while they didn't hit their mark- they did make a hit, slicing through his forearms and pinning him to the dragon.

The position wasn't random, he waited until Deidara was directly over and made his move, that way Dei wouldn't be able to avoid the blade. That was the conclusion the elder Uchiha made, as he leaped form his tree.

"I can't move," Deidara hissed through his teeth, tugging his arms though it was no use he couldn't even move them,"Shit,"

Madara halted, not sure what to do. He could leave Deidara and see if he could escape himself or he could try to use his teleportation technique.

You know the one that sputtered out during his fight with TaiTai -still bullshit-.

Even from where he was standing he could still see the pain on Dei's face, there wasn't any second thoughts, the swirls around his eye hole expanded and in a flash he was on the dragon with his partner, who's face was frozen.

Gee, the elder couldn't figure out why *sarcasm*

But there was no time to monologue (A/N: There's always time!) he had to get Deidara up and moving again before they both hit the ground, thinking about this right now was seriously taking up too much time.  
>Fuck he couldn't stop!<p>

"Stay still," he commanded, looking over the weapons pinning Deidara down, said boy sputtered for a moment.

"The bombs!-,"

"Stay still!," Madara looped his hands through the holes in the centers of the over sized shuriken. This would have to do, 'Don't hold it against me,'

The dragon hit the ground with an earth shaking thud, the sheer mass of the dragon was too much for the clay mines buried beneath the surface. They set off, sending fiery pillars sky wards.

"Two birds with one stone," Sasuke said stoically, his skin returning to its normal pale tone, hair short and spiky.

Clouds of smoke rising from the sites of the blasts. He narrowed his eyes over his shoulder when a shadow emerged from their gray depths. He hn'd with a shrug of his shoulder, "Stubborn fools," 

"Be more careful would you!," the masked ones voice bellowed.

"Shut up already!," Deidara yelled back just as they broke free of the cloud, planting a foot in Madara's side he pushed said man off the bird.

And Madara fell off because...Because he let himself fall off! that's right, he fell and smacked the ground so hard the birds -too stupid to fly away from a massive explosion- flee' d from the trees at the sound of the impact on purpose!

And he asked for the bruise he could feel forming on his ribs, right hip, right arm -basically the entire right side of his body- too. Even so he couldn't hold in the small groan. It had been worth it, being for Madara's feelings.

Or whatever it was he had inside him now.

Saving Dei gave him a warm feeling, not unlike the one he felt when he was alone with Dei when they were close, but it wasn't awkward like that feeling.

No, not at all. In fact, he could learn to embrace this new emotion. If only he knew what it was called.

Deidara didn't spare him a single glance or any sympathy at all, he was too busy cursing the youngest Uchiha, swearing his vendetta even beyond his un dug grave.

Make him look like a fool, he would show Sasuke.

he would show _THEM. _

__"You damn kid," he growled, catching Sasuke's sharingan in his sights.

Those eyes.

Those were the same eyes he had.

Madara pushed himself up with a low grunt and started sweeping the dust from his clothes with his hands as he knelt on the ground. He looked up to Deidara, curious as to why he stopped his assault after so brutishly kicking him off the bird, having been too caught up in his own inner monologue and thoughts to be aware of it sooner.

That's when he noticed the eye lock Sasuke and Deidara were in, the blond's face seemed to be getting redder and redder with every second that passed, while the young raven's held only mild annoyance accompanied by dead shark like eyes.

And then Madara knew why the short fused firework had stopped, he was stuck in his mind, reminiscing on the past. Remembering his fight with Itachi.

Something the eldest Uchiha recalled just as vividly, though he had only seen it through Zetsu's eyes.  
>Deidara hated himself for marveling Itachi's ability to defeat him, he saw the genjutsu he had trapped him in as beautiful. The sharingan had created something that made him stare in awe, stare at something that wasn't his own creation, which he had slaved over to perfect.<p>

His heart and soul went into every one of his creations, and yet Uchiha's could do whatever they wanted with their eyes, could see whatever they wanted and create anything they wanted. Simply because they were blessed with the Kekkei genkai and larger amounts of chakra.

That was why he didn't treat Madara any better or any worse when he found that Tobi was nothing more than a ruse, he simply saw no reason to treat him differently having never seen one of the many things he hated about Uchiha's the most on his partners much more rugged features.

Sasuke on the other hand did exactly what would be expected of a cocky kid that didn't know any better. He showed Dei why he should and why he _DID_ hate the sharingan.

Deidara put everything into his art, he believed in it, Sasuke screwed that all up simply by opening his eyes.

"I won't lose,",As if he wanted to prove his desperation to defeat the boy Deidara reached into the pouch on his left hip and pulled out the entire clump, biting of pieces and swallowing until it was all gone.

Madara blinked, surprise written all over his masked face,"He ate it," This was _NOT _looking good .For any of them, it was teetering on the breaking point of insanity.

"You won't survive this! yeah," Deidara clapped his hands and weaved the hand signs he needed for his next technique, he reeled back,"Madara, get back!,"

Madara took a couple steps backwards, not taking his eye off the blond. Frowning when he lurched forward and the moistened clay spilled out of his mouth.

It collected seemingly mid air, bubbling just as the clay soldiers he had created only on a much larger scale.

"C4 karura,"

Not only was this explosive extremely large (towering over the trees with absolute ease), it was also shaped in the artists image, unlike the clay soldiers who technically had no real form at all.

"If that thing explodes, I'm done for," Sasuke whispered in awe.

"Great now there's two of them," Madara said with a deadpanned expression. On the inside he was leaping for what he figured must be joy, Great! another Deidara!...

He didn't like that emotion very much.

Was too TaiTai/Tobi-ish. (A/N: there's the one joke you guys get this chapter :( ...)

The giant C4 Deidara started moving into the forest, its footsteps sending tremors through the earth, its body mass pulling up trees as it went along. Based on assumption -common sense- it was probably heading after Sasuke who had presumably taken off in the direction the explosive was going in an attempt to escape it.

Madara jumped into the trees at the sound of the giants footsteps halting, climbing to the top and poking his head through the leaf cover he saw the C4 karura standing in place, he looked to Deidara just in time to see him clap his hands.

The elder tilted his head at the sight of the bomb expanding as if it were a balloon until it finally popped. But there was no explosion.

No, there was no blast, only a release of a few billion tiny enemies that only he could see now that he had his sharingan activated.

Sasuke would have suspected it to be a dud at first but Madara knew better than to think that he would be that dense. He would have noticed Deidara dropping back and rising higher into the air he also would have noticed that the bomber was maintaining that height, not dropping down not flying any closer.

Seemed suspicious.

Not that Deidara would have cared even if he did realize that, he was having too much fun, carrying out his vendetta on Sasuke, since Orochimaru was gone.

"Art is a bang! yeah. KATSU!," all was quiet.

By Madara's foot a small lizard that had been crawling around flicking it tongue, was being broken down bit by bit. Its very existence vanishing with a gust of wind.

"Tiny nano sized bombs, released and spread out by the exploding karura, breathed in by everything and upon detonation begins to destroy whatever inhaled it on a cellular level,"

Sasuke's eyes widened, fear clear on his face as he looked over his shoulder, his hands turning to flakes as thin as rice paper before his very eyes. .

"And rips the victim apart cell by cell,"

The youngest raven vanished, like all the other creatures, unaware of the danger they were in.

Madara 'hmphed', his mouth twitching upwards, "Quite the jutsu, it's almost terrifying,"

On his bird Deidara's face was copying his partners as he brushed his long bang out from in front of his eye, the scope that usually covered it long gone, lost along with his cloak, "Guess I will have to thank Itachi later, yeah," His left eye opened and focused, his pupil constricting at the sudden intrusion of light.

A weak but still somehow strong laugh of victory passed his lips,"I WON! my art-,"

Pain cut him off and the sound of a chirping birds filled the would be silence.

Deidara blinked and warily looked over his shoulder to the owner of the arm now protruding from his chest who spoke with an unnervingly calm voice, "Seems you've used up quite a bit of your chakra with that last technique, you've gotten slow," he twisted his arm, causing the blond to wince, "Those tiny bombs of yours are invisible to the naked eye, but with my sharingan I can see and distinguish chakra by color. You loaded those microscopic bombs with your chakra and because of that I could see them as vividly as a veil of mist,"

Deidara bit his lip to keep himself in control, but it didn't seem to help as Sasuke went on in his explanation of how he avoided one of the Iwa's most deadly techniques.

"At first I wasn't sure what they were, but when I noticed you hovering just out their range..." The youngest Uchiha trailed off, letting Deidara fill in the blanks himself.

Shaking his head the pyro growled,"Those damn eyes...YOU KNEW! yeah,"

"Let's just say I had a hunch and it was right. Being able to see the bombs gave me the advantage and escaping was a piece of cake,"

"But I saw you die,"

"That was my-,"

"-His genjutsu. Too bad it was a wasted effort," Madara grumbled, raking a hand through his hair.

This would only drive Deidara to become more reckless with his creations, he was already up to C4 and the fight had only been going on for maybe an hour, at the most. At this rate there was no telling how much longer it would be until his sanity brakes.

With the next couple of seconds ticking by...

The sparks flying from Sasuke's hand stopped falling, shock spreading over his features. Attached to his leg the tan hand of Deidara, smiling madly. The raven looked to the soft body his arm was still entrapped in,"A clay clone," he spat.

It seemed such a worry was still premature.

"I knew it, you're just like itachi. I waited for you to use your genjutsu you fool! You honestly believe I would be fooled by the same trick TWICE?~!," Deidara clenched Sasuke's leg tightly.

Madara frowned, he could barely make out what the two were saying from where he was, what he did understand made him shudder,"Ever since his fight with Itachi he's been training his left eye to counter the sharingan," But as he has said before, it was a menial attempt.

Such a simple thing wouldn't win him the battle. In the end, all things fall to the sharingan's might.

"This time it's over for real!," the bomber laughed again, pulling at the struggling boy. He rolled his tongue collecting the clay left over from the creation of Karura and chewed. Sasuke tugged his foot even harder as a black bubble escaped his captors mouth and began to grow around his body, enveloping him until he was in darkness. 'extra insurance' binds appearing and wrapping around his legs and arm, holding him in place.

With his chakra levels spars -he only had enough for one more strong justu- he couldn't do much, except calm down and wait for the moment he needed.

Deidara, pushed off the bird by the expanding art work, grabbed onto the black squishy surface and tore the tie between him and his creation with his teeth,"Would you look at that, you don't even have the strength to break free! looks like YOU are the one who used up too much chakra! yeah," he pushed off, flying backwards,"The invisible C4 bombs are coursing through the air in there, hmm," he said, clenching and opening his fist. 

Deidara hissed in displeasure at the bird his hand spit up, "A dud," it was pathetic looking, lop sided, and ugly. It would not do! he tossed it off to the side.

Madara watched the little bird glide over his head and fall into the forest, 'he must be running low on chakra,'  
>Deidara grasped the wound on his right forearm, feeling it pulse in time with his heartbeat. Distracted he was unaware of Sasuke's free movement until he burst out the clay work, his hand for the fourth time that day alight with his most favored jutsu, the once burned and bloody stump of awing on his back reborn in the form of multiple snakes.<p>

Sasuke flexed his most useful wing to turn himself toward Deidara, hand reached out toward the bomber like the grim reapers hand would reach out to a dying samurai on the battlefield.

Deidara's face lit up knowingly,"You're extended blade is out of range, yeah. You can't hit me," he brought up his hand, letting the mouth show off its wiggling tongue,"KATSU!,"

Madara internally winced when the golden haired teenagers body lost its height and momentum, gravity quickly reminding him of just how brutal it could be as he slammed into tree branches on his way back down to earth.

Deidara landed on the ground with a muffled thud, groaning in pain he pushed himself up, wrenching open an eye to see one of the snakes that made up Sasuke's false wing become dust.  
>He broke out into a triumphant smile and staggered to his feet. His partner landing on a limb above him,<p>

"Deidara are you okay?," he called down.

Deidara didn't answer his question but he did give a small laugh in its stead, he turned to Madara with a face full of excitement and pride, it reminded the elder of just how child like Dei could be sometimes,"I did it! yeah,"

But Madara couldn't smile back, he refused to speak, knowing that somewhere hidden within the trees Sasuke was waiting. His stiff , ready to leap posture and sudden silence made the younger ninja tune his ears too, though he kept a smile on his face. He had won, the victory was his, the Uchiha's obsessive nature to protect or whatever he thought he did wouldn't ruin the moment for the bomber.

Sasuke's sparking body flying through the leaves, fist headed strait for Deidara's face however did make that smile crumble away.

Though it was replaced with the shock he couldn't(wouldn't) express earlier on the dragon, as Madara stood in front of his rather small form, hand covering/holding the youngest Uchiha's fist firmly in place, far away from Deidara.

The fight had been Deidara's, Madara had no place to intervene unless he felt it was necessary. Now that he was aware he could teleport again, it would do nothing except raise questions seeing as Deidara would do whatever the hell he wanted to anyway. This however was a crap shot, compeletly un honorable! Intolerable for an Uchiha.

"Red," Sasuke looked surprised and his it showed in his voice as well, after it pushed through the pain he felt throughout his bruised and battered body. Unbeknownst to Deidara and the youngest Uchiha that simple word made Madara copy his expression.

_Small chirps continued to make their way out of the mans throat as his lips pulled up in a devilish smirk,"Red,"_

Madara shook his head free of that things face, opening back up to listen to Deidara's hysteria.

"This is no illusion," ...Hysteria?,"How did you avoid my C4?~!," there it was. Deidara gapped,"Don't tell me you...You noticed," he said slowly.

The tiny raven shoulders rose,"Hn, I figured it out a while ago. When you're up against a sharingan user you should make sure you hide your hand seals. No matter how quickly you form them," Sasuke started.

"The sharingan can still see them,"Madara made it his place to finish,"He saw how all most all of your jutsu were Earth Element. The chidori and raikiri are lightning elements,"

Sasuke nodded,"Earth is weak against Lightning, I used my chidori to turn your bombs into duds. Without them you're useless,"

he had all the answers didn't he? Deidara felt like bashing in the bastards girly face. Show him just how 'useless' he was.

Madara went on,"His Chidori a few moments ago was to deactivate the bombs in his system. It wasn't like it didn't screw him over too though, isn't that right Sasuke?," he looked at the boy then peered over his shoulder at Deidara when he spoke.

"When did you find out?,"

Sasuke smirked smugly,"After I got hit by the mines," Madara squeezing his fist brought it back down to a pain filled grimace.

"So he'll have you believe, truthfully an Uchiha never goes into battle blind, the second they engage in combat they are analyzing every move their opponent makes. When he pierced your first attacks with his Chidori senbon," the youngest blinked, "A few of them didn't go off, the only one that did was the one you threw at him to avoid his counterattack, that was when he came to a conclusion," 

"A conclusion?," Deidara eyed Sasuke from around the masked ninja's body.

"You chose not to set them off because they landed near your partner," he shifted his gaze to glare at said partner.

Madara remained still.

"So you didn't know if I was holding back or if your senbon had disabled them, I see, that's why you used the mines to make sure,"

"Exactly. I let myself fall into your 'trap' because I needed to prove my hunch correct, that's why I threw my sword. Not to check if there was a mine there but to see what would happen to the bomb I knew was there would deactivate, seeing as my sword was infused with Chidori,"

"But how did you know where the mines were?~!," Deidara demanded.

The elder shook his head,"Dei he already explained it, the sharingan can distinguish chakra by its color. Your masterpieces never stood a chance against his eyes,"

Forced to stop the blond held back his retort. Though there was one more thing he needed to know,"One more question! if your theory was wrong and the lightning didn't disable them, what would you have done then? yeah,"

Madara turned his head to look at Sasuke, he was also curious about the youngest raven's plan B.

"It's a waste of breath explaining it to you, seeing as I didn't need to use it," but it seemed he was willing to tell them, "I answered your questions now you answer mine," Sasuke pulled back his fist when he felt the masked ones grip loosen.

"Where is Itachi?,"

"You barely have enough chakra to keep yourself standing. No matter how cool you try to act, you can't even catch your breath now, you are nothing,", Deidara said, his anger swelling, becoming almost uncontrollable.

He used the last bit of his chakra to create and control two long snake like beings, that shot out of his hand mouths, between Madara's legs and wrapped around sasuke's ankles(**A/N: **Man his legs are taking some serious abuse.)

"I have won after all, yeah," Though they were weak and would've done nothing more than burn Sasuke's legs Deidara fell onto one knee and began to pant, his chakra worn as thin as it could be, "Try to express a little worry you bastard would you? hmm," the boys stoic as ever face was pissing him off!, "You're ruining the moment. There is no doubt my art will end you this time! It's okay to be scared,"

The youngest Uchiha was getting close to being the same way as his enemy, but he still had one more shot of chidori stream up his sleeve, which he sent through his body into the binds, causing Deidara to release them so he wouldn't get zapped himself.

It was clear neither of them were going to last long at this rate.

Madara felt what he guessed would be called guilt over letting his Deidara work himself over like this, he opened his mouth to speak. He wanted to tell Deidara that they should retreat -he would answer questions later-, he turned to him, snapping his mouth back shut immediately.

Deidara fists were clenched and his jaw was locked in rage, curses bubbling in the back of his throat,"That...Is what, I HATE about you bastards. You think you're so much better than everyone else, your eyes reject my art! they piss me off! but you know what you cocksucker?~! In the end, it is those eyes that will stare in admiration over my artistic ability! hmm," he screeched.

Sasuke let his eyes fade from red to dark brown,"You think I give a damn about any of that. Now tell me what you know about Itachi,"

With that simple statement the blonds sanity finally scattered across the ground in a million tiny crystal pieces, he was going to make sure he killed the Uchiha and Madara knew there was nothing he could do stop him.

He was going to bring out his trump card.

"You even deactivated your sharingan...Just how much do you underestimate me?~!," Deidara gripped the collar of his shirt.

"Deidara don't!," Madara felt his hands start to shake slightly in anticipation.

Should he stop him?...Tackle him? teleport him away?

The bomber ripped off his shirt, tossing it randomly off to the side.

No then Deidara would hate him.

Sasuke's body quivered, a chill running up his spine. His eyes running along the stitched up mouth Deidara had over his heart.

But if he let him die...

Madara would be alone again.

Deidara lifted his hand, letting the mouth on it chew through the starting stitch and grab on, pulling his hand back the long thread followed.

_Going through everything he went through for nothing! It was all so fucking pointless. Nothing he did made his bomber like him anymore than he ever had, while his own feelings..._

The mouth bursted open, wiggling waving around its tongue, tasting the heavy air like a snake.

_It was as if they were trying to get back at him for all the evil things he had ever done in his life._

Deidara dumped out the remianing clay he had in his pouches and held it up to the mouth, it took huge bites out of it, feeding on it.

_From his master plan to the several other minor plans already carried out by Nagato and the others._

The more clay the mouth consumed, the more black lines appeared on the blonds body.

_All of this suffering over one person that didn't give a damn._

The vein like lines stretched from the growing black hole on his chest all the way to fingers and feet.

_Had everything he did to save Deidara in the first place been nothing but a mistake..._

The clay now gone the mouth licked the almost completely invisible area around itself,"Behold my ultimate piece of art, yeah. With this jutsu I will die and become art itself! the explosion will scar the land for centuries, it will be like nothing else ever seen before!," Madara was frozen in place,"Then my art will finally get the recognition it deserves!,"

_'Forgive me Madara,'_

"Ten Kilometers (6 miles)...That's how far the blast will stretch," The black lines spread all over his body began to recede into the form appearing around the mouth on his chest,"Start running runt, I like the thrill of a good chase," Deidara's smirking face began to fade, "Cower in fear," Sasuke shakily tried to stand while Madara racked his brain,"Drop to your knees and marvel! Cry your heart out," The lone floating black stringy orb split down the center, cracks branching off of it, allowing beams of light to shine through,"Because my art,"

There was a chance...There had to be! Madara just had to time it.

_KATSU!_

A beam of light shot into the heavens and expanded, quickly enveloping everything in its devastating heat. For a brief moment the now partially blinded Madara -barely managing to pry his eye open without being overwhelmed by pain- saw a flicker.

_There_.

"IS A BANG!,"

**TBC!**

**This one sucks soooooo bad T_T Part 1 then part 2 = huge difference! Thank you for reading! I love you all! Yes all five of you :D**


	17. Chapter 17

**Sorry i didn't upload this last week! couldn't upload it on Wed and I don't like uploading on the weekend. Plus it was raining for like two days strait and it makes me sleepy. Many apologies for the length, it would have dragged if it was much longer.**

**0 0 0**

A mixture of ash and cold rain fell from heavens and onto the world below, the ink like liquid sticking and painting everything in a thin coat of gray.

It ran down the open wounds and burns on the face and body of the Uchiha staggering drunkenly through it, a bloodied figure with his jaw clenched in a snarl in his arms, he was being held tightly enough for Madara to make sure he was still breathing but loose enough so it wouldn't hurt him.

Behind them a blackened battle zone and the corpse of the giant snake Manda, the youngest Uchiha who had summoned him in a last second attempt to save himself was no where in sight.

_Madara concentrated his chakra to the center of the enormous blast that stretched and obliterated everything in its path with ease, keeping his visible eye keenly attached to the spot where the bomber would appear,"Seishin kyapucha no Jutsu!,"_**(1)**_ in a flash of blinding light he teleported, unable to open his eyes he was wasn't sure if the Jutsu had worked until a soft body appeared in his arms, feathering out the void of his chipping eye hole the body vanished into his other dimension._

_Now he was the one in trouble,"GRAAAH!," _

An inhumanly quick teleportation away from the blast zone was the only thing that saved the remaining half of his mask, it had a jagged split down the center, exactly like how it was back then...Hn.

His eyes -even his hidden one- were glazed over and his breaths were shallow. it was almost as if he was sleep walking or something.

And that's exactly how it felt, like he was backtracking through a dream he had already woken up from or a nightmare that picks up where it left off once you go back to sleep. Complete with hazy vision.

Pushing himself to walk up the slope of a hill without stumbling and dropping his bomber he was met with a pleasant and somewhat frightening warm glow. Two of them actually.  
>.<p>

They looked like box shaped flames or perhaps burning picture frames.

Windows.

A house.

A _Civilian_ house.

The old leader picked up his pace a bit not making it more than a few steps before he had to stop, his legs burned. He couldn't take standing anymore. He honestly didn't care if he looked like the most pathetic weakling on the face of the planet, right then all he cared about was finding someone to help Dei.

Although he couldn't hear very well past the sound of rushing water in his ears he did vaguely make out the sound of a squeaky door hinge followed by a gasp and the clanking of what was probably a wooden bucket.

The light illuminating from the house was blocked by a small figure, casting a shadow over him.

"Grandma!," a young high pitched voice called.

That small shadow was overtaken by one much larger, hiding the Uchiha and Deidara completely,"Hiro, Go get grandma some towels and bring them to the third room,"

it didn't make more than a couple of seconds for him to realize he had made it the front door of the house and that these were the owners.

In his line of vision what appeared a dainty wrinkled hand slowly crept, his eye flicked up to the owner of that hand, shooting a hostile glare at the white haired old woman sporting a topknot.

"You carried him all the way here, let me take over your work shinobi," she said in a strict mother like voice.

Madara's grip loosened a bit, letting Deidara's limp head fall away from the cold chest it had been buried in.

"My..." the old woman whispered. It was impossible for him to still be alive, he was covered in burns and had blood seeping out of the corner of his mouth, what she assumed to have once been long golden hair was singed short and black, some of it reaching his shoulders some even shorter.

"I got them grandma!," the little girl with a small chestnut colored pony tail and large green eyes cried, running down the stairs across from the door her grandmother was crouching in.

The woman nodded,"Good job, sweety,"she said, placing a hand on Madara's forearm,"Come inside, we'll take care of him,"

He struggled to his feet, he had enough strength left to make it inside. _Hopefully._

The old woman led him into the house, up the stairs where the little girl was hanging on the outside handrail, peering through the wooden bars like they were a cage, she climbed back over and re-ascended the stairs to follow the two elders once they reached the top and threatened to leave her behind.

The woman pushed open the first door they came across, it was dark except for a lone candle by a metal table and there was a chill in the air that Madara hadn't felt in the rest of the warm house.

"Set him down," she said heading of to the table on the other side of the room, which she proceeded to drag over, the wooden legs scraping the floor and crying out like nails on a chalk board while she did it.

Madara faltered for a second before hesitantly doing as he was told, gently laying the blond down on the table, he pressed his legs against the side to make sure he was actually on the center of the table and not on the raised edge.

He looked at his hands that coated in dark red frozen streams of dried blood.

"I'm sorry you need to leave the room," he registered the old woman's voice, she was tying a cloth around her mouth and nose and had pulled on a pair of medical gloves, so she was a medic talk about luck,"I don't care if you stand right outside the door but you can't be in here," The ancient Uchiha felt her nudge him in the side with her elbow, being careful not to touch him with her hands,"Hiro dear, go keep him company, grandma is going to be a while,"

The brown haired girl poked her head around the corner, blushing in surprise at being caught snooping.

"But what about tall man grandma?," (**A/N: **I purposely didn't add a 'The' to that sentence! It was not a typo ^^)

Madara looked at her, not realizing she was talking about him.

"I'll take a look at him when I'm finished here," The old woman looked at him, "Your wounds aren't as serious as his are."

Shrugging the girl bowed again, bouncing out of the room with her granny shoving Madara out of the room-too tired to fight back he just let it happen-, catching the door with her hand Hiro swung it shut.

Before it clicked Madara heard her whisper, "What a mess,"

He looked down at the child by his legs who smiled happily up at him, "Don't worry! Grandma Momo is the best herbologist in all of Kusa! she used to be a medic and everything," she sang.

The two stood outside the door for an hour and a half

"You look sleepy," Hiro suddenly stated randomly, "Come on," he grabbed his hand, he could feel her warmth press against the icy skin left open to the elements by a large hole in the palm of his glove.

She pulled and he hesitated, locking his feet in place. stopping her useless tugging Hiro turned her gaze from the floor to his face,"I know your worried about your friend mister shinobi," she said,"But beating yourself up isn't going to make him better. My grandma says that tomorrow will become today, and that today will become yesterday, so whatever happens today will become the past tomorrow! And feeling guilty about something that happened in the past is the same as trying to live in it,"

Madara took a minute to think that over, before he nodded wordlessly, signaling to Hiro that she could lead and he would follow her.

For the first time in his life he felt guilt over something and because of a child -a kid for Kami's sake- that guilt turned into something else.

Something that told him Momo would save Deidara, that Dei's will was strong enough to not give up and die.

That everything would be okay.

.**.**.

Kami ,Deidara had better make it through this or else Madara swore he will stick his head in a kiln, keeping these sappy emotions just weren't worth it otherwise.

"You can sleep in here!," Madara didn't notice Hiro had stopped and barely avoided running into her as she stood right in his path, not giving a thought to the potential danger she just put herself in. A one hundred and twenty three (55.9 kg) pound mass of muscle VS the tiny frame of a fifty to sixty pound (22.7 to 27.3 Kg for everyone smarter than me) child, things did not bode well for the child!

"This is my big brothers and mines room,"

she ran into the dimly lit room holding her arms out, she spun around and plopped down on a small stool next to the bed, bouncing and giggling,"He won't mind,"

The leader ignored the hyper blabbering's that spilled from her mouth after that, falling onto the bed his hissed at the feeling of the wool covers scrapping the light (second degree) burns on his back.

Breathing deeply to subconsciously numb the pain, he sealed off his sense of sight, and touch, hyper tuning the remaining. Listening to the sounds of the various clanks and bangs coming from the room Momo and Deidara were in that went on for a bit until the less than peaceful and less than silent silence was broken by a murmur, smelling the scent of some type of blossom perfume drifting through the vents from the bathroom down the hall, swallowing the metallic tasting saliva in his mouth.

"Mr. kitty has been born, 'nya, nya ' his momma cries, Mr. kitty found a fuzzy, nya, nya oh what fun, Mr. kitty wandered away, nya nya, what a sad day, Mr. kitty has itchy feet, nya nya, chew chew," the song repeated over and over again.

It was strangely _calming_ once you got past how off key it was, the repetitiveness and the-

"Nya,nya," Madara's eye twitched.

Yes and the 'Nya's'.

The little girl kept singing and the relaxing Madara kept dozing in and out of consciousness for the next couple of hours, he was fighting himself. He could NOT go to sleep, he was in an unfamiliar place, with unfamiliar, untrustworthy people.

"Row, row, row your boat," He would gladly go without the help though!

Thankfully -or maybe not so thankfully- the door creaked open, cutting the girl off mid verse, "Grandma!,"

Momo shushed her,"Come with me sweety, let him rest, we have guests," it was a whole ten seconds full of the sound of the stool being pushed aside and the pattering of bare feet before the girl spoke again.

"Grandma why is that mans hair green?," The door closed once again.

_Flashback!_

_"Madara-sensei," said man looked at his young pupil who sat beside him at the tea stand._

_"Hn?," he swallowed the inarizushi he had just popped in his mouth so he could speak, though his hand still went for the plate that sat between the sensei and student, pulling it up onto his lap._

_Itachi looked up at Madara,"i was wondering...Why did you teach me __Seishin kyapucha?, I'll never get hurt ,at least not enough to use it," _(**A/N: **PFT, that's what he thinks -.-)

_"What do you mean?,"_

_The young prodigy perked up in confusion,"Well, that's what you told me wasn't it? That the technique user can travel back in time five minutes, did I misunderstand?,"_

_Madara shook his head,"Not at all. That's how the technique works, however if you find a way to concentrate the jutsu to the chakra source of another person or creature you can use the technique on them/it as well,"_

_"I thought it was impossible to control somebody else's chakra,"_

_"It is, I said concentrate the jutsu not concentrate their chakra,"_

_"How would you do something like that?,"_

_Madara froze, slowly shaking his head,"Rikudo you ask a lot of questions...Okay look at it this way. Say you were in trouble and I was going to save you-,"_

_Itachi scoffed,"That is a highly unlikely scenario sensei,"_

_"Fine, say Sasuke-,"_

_"I would never let something like that happen to him," The young Uchiha barked._

_The elder glared,"Would you shut up and let me finish,"Realizing his mistake of out speaking his sensei Itachi pressed his lips, shutting himself up, "Say your mother and father are gone and Sasuke is on his way home from the academy when he's ambushed by enemy ninja trying to pick off an easy target. You come to his rescue but he was gravely injured during the fight, all you need is something with his chakra signature on it like a kunai," he stopped, eyeing Itachi with a serious expression, "He is learning how to thrown chakra kunai isn't he?,"_

_Itachi nodded. Not a total lie, not a whole truth. Sasuke couldn't maintain the chakra cloak long enough to change how much damage the weapon would do, though he was getting better._

_"Then you would use that to copy his chakra signature with your sharingan, as long as he used it that same day it should still be fresh,"_

_"And I would be able to concentrate the jutsu to his chakra, reversing time to before he was inured,"_

_"Hn," The ancient shinobi nodded, "Just remember, there is a limit to how much you can do it with other people, use the signature once and it won't work again," he quickly added, going back in to lift his mask and take another soy dumpling off the stick._

_"Sensei?," he drooled a little, so close yet so far._

_"Ugh," he grunted, pulling both of his hands away from his face._

_"What happens if I use this technique on you?,"_

_Madara shifted his eye away from Itachi's poking, curious ones, quickly pulling his mask up to nom on his dango, '_Smooth Madara, real smooth,'

**TBC~(Sort of)**

**(1). From what I've gathered Seishin means 'Heart,Intention,Mind,soul or spirit' and Kyapucha means 'Capture'. If it doesn't then tough nuggets.**

**Wow, I didn't do as bad a job at explaining how Mada saved Dei as i thought I would! not the best by any means but not bad. Check back next time for the good ending then the bad ending :D**


	18. Alternate Ending 1: Happily Ever After

**I'm terribly sorry I couldn't post on Monday, ^^' finished like five paragraphs a day...took forever! **

**Why the hell would somebody play Chubby Bunny this late in the year?~!**

The ticking of the old clock downstairs drifted throughout the house, lulling the little brunette girl sitting in the corner of the cozy warm room where Madara lay sleeping . The part of his face that had always been hidden beneath a mask, covered in bandages, smashing his hair. New gloves on his hands and a new shirt replaced the old tattered one.

His visible eye was twitching out of annoyance at the dream he was having. (That's right Uchiha's can be annoyed even when they're sleeping)

His hands followed suit.

And soon the rest of him did as well, shooting up from the bed, back strait as a board, mouth open in a roar, "FUCKING CATERPILLARS!," (**A/N: **If you're up to date with the manga that joke makes a lot more sense, if not, many apologies)

Hiro meeped, snapping wide awake and frantically shooting her around from side to side looking for some invisible monster.

The door creaked open and Momo walked in clutching her hand,"I hope you're happy, you nearly scared my poor cat half to death," she said in a dark tone.

"It's true sensei,"

_POV_

"You should apologize," I saw Itachi's face twitch, threatening to break his blank expression with a small humorous smirk.

"Itachi..." So, Nagato sent Itachi to me in my time of weakness. A Coup d'etat to end me once and for all perhaps? I chuckled at that.

Right and pigs can fly.

My past student lowered his voice back to its usual somber tone,"Sensei, I am going to get right to the point, you've been unconscious for a week,"

wow, 'Strait to the point' he was serious.

I rose an eyebrow,"Why? What happened?,"

"You saved Deidara sensei, remember?," No shit, that wasn't what I meant. Rolling my eyes I began to think about what he had called me.

Hn, Sensei. Itachi never calls me that without a purpose. It was encoded in the brats DNA.

Which meant he _did it _on purpose.

I eyed him curiously as he shifted his weight to one foot and tucked one his arms inside his cloak, such a silly little habit.

So caught up in watching him and his fickle little quirks I didn't notice Momo had walked up behind me with a piece of ice until it was too late.

My arm flexed as the cold wetness crept across my skin, "Cold, cold, cold," I'll admit it okay? I whined like a child at the unwanted feeling. I never liked the cold. Just because I was born in Winter doesn't mean shit.

"Oh, hush you. This is for your own good, I'm going to have to apply a balm to your burns and trust me," The old hag pressed the ice into the closest sensitive burn she could find, "You want it to be as numb as possible,"

I frowned but tried to ignore it, turning back to Itachi for a distraction.

"It's pretty quiet, is he still asleEEAP!," I cried as the ice cube or whatever it was slid down my side.

"Whoops, sorry,"

Fucking bitch.

Itachi's expression remain still, while his eyes flickered with some kind of pity.

My heart dropped down into my stomach. Had he not made it?

My student sighed lightly,"He's fine right now," I was right he is here to kill me.

"Boy you almost gave me a heart attack," I said with relief in my voice, my hand raising to hold the place above my pounding heart.

He shook his head and grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "You need a heart to have a heart attack." now that's just cruel. Heh.

**xItachi's POVx**

Hn, his eye. There was a hundred different emotions swimming in its dark surface -Fear, relief, annoyance, some type of _joy_.-, as he placed a hand on his chest and chuckled a chuckle that I had never heard from him before.

It sounded like something someone would do when they were told good news after a major disaster.

I Smirked knowingly, it's nice to know the reasons behind his actions for once.

My smirk slowly dropped though, seeing his eyes glaze over and drift to the corner of the room. I wonder what he's thinking?

**x Nobody's POV x**

Itachi soundlessly glided over to stand at Madara's side,"The entire time you were asleep you were whispering to yourself, declarations of love and the denial of love," he leaned closer towards his teachers ear,"For Deidara,"

Madara blinked as if snapping out of a daydream, his ears having picked up what the younger Uchiha had said.

The young man shrugged,"I was curious. So with permission from Leader, I entered your dreams,"

The spiky haired Uchiha growled,"You had no right,"

"You are right, I didn't, I apologize. But I did and honestly I found what I saw to be quite amusing," Itachi's arm dropped back into his sleeve so he could throw them open dramatically, "One giant collage of memories bound together into one fever induced fantasy world. And all the time before that I had wondered why you saved Deidara,"

"You've been spending too much time with Pain," Madara mumbled.

"And you have spent far too much time in that dreamland of yours," Itachi countered.

The elder narrowed his eye,"Why should I believe you? Why should I think for a second that what I know for a fact has happened, has never really happened?," the younger cast him a scrutinizing look,"Don't examine me like that none of you have ever given me any reason to trust you, so why should I? With something as serious as this..."

"Because it is that serious. You don't have to trust us anymore than you expect us to trust you. Even mortal enemies hear each other out," Itachi said almost pleadingly.

Madara thought that over, then nodded, letting Itachi go on in his explanation.

"You're untreated fever, you got sick on your way to gather information from an informant a week before Deidara and your run in with Sasuke," Yes, he remembered that it was a solo mission,"And you caught a fever, Kisame noticed the last time he saw you, he said your face looked like rice paper. sensei your brain was literally being cooked inside of your body, "

It was Momo's turn to speak up,"I can't imagine what effects such a high temperature and lack of sleep combined can do to the mind," she peeped.

"Because of your _ability_," Itachi stressed that word, "it will be no surprise if you have irreversible damage,"

So, the time they spent together...All that time he had spent searching for Deidara.

"None of it happened?,"

Itachi shook his head,"It did. It just didn't happen exactly as you had imagined during your fever. For instance the house in Rikudo falls, the one you fantasized as being a paradise for yourself," I nodded,"Is right here, you're in it, and it is the home of Kusagakure's best herbologist Momo Gasubana,"

As if on cue Momo pulled on the bandages she was rolling onto Madara's arm, pinching the skin and making him pout, "Ow,"

Itachi continued,"You saved Deidara and used your other ability to bring yourself and Deidara to Kusa forest because subconsciously you remembered who lived here, you bought herbs from Madam Momo on your way back from your solo mission, you were someone she calls an 'SSP',"

"Stubborn Shinobi Patient," The medic laughed,"You actually stayed here for quite some time. Your fever wouldn't break, no matter what I did, then one night you wouldn't stop mumbling about your comrade being abducted, you were gone the next morning,"

The elder chuckled dryly,"I went into battle bat shit insane," Deidara better not ever find out about that. His ass would be grass in a heartbeat. Didn't matter if he saved his life, hell that would be the incentive.

"Konan will come by in a moment," _Nooooo_, not her. "She's going to make sure you take the medicine that Madam Momo gave us. You were getting it through your IV before you left on your wild goose chase, but seeing as you're lucid now I'm sure you can handle pills," Itachi turned, looking back over his shoulder, waiting for the inevitable question.

"Where are you going?," there we are.

Itachi grunted,"To tell Leader you're back to normal or whatever your usual sanity level is classified as,"

He passed the woman standing in the doorway holding a little white paper cup in her hand. Madara quirked an eyebrow, how long had she been there?

"You better be thankful Nagato spared him the part about the prison raid and the attack on Konoha," Konan said once Itachi was out of ear shot -ninja earshot-.

She stepped into the room and handed Madara the paper cup which he glimpsed into curiously. He shot the same look over to Momo but she simply patted the tape securing the bandage to his arm and got up to leave.

Shrugging he threw back the clear capsules and ''swallowed'' them without any effort, "When can I see Dei?," he crumpled the cup up and tossed at Konan, who made a half assed attempt at batting it.

"Right now, if you're up to it, I just need to go put these up and I'll show you to his room.",the old medic piled the rest of her bandages and tape into the free flap of her apron,"Konan dear can you help a poor old woman?," she gave the younger woman the sweetest look she could muster.

Konan answered with an obviously forced smile and she was forced out the door by the old woman with superhuman strength.

After making sure they were gone, Madara turned his head and none too subtly spat the pills he'd stuffed under his tongue into his fist. So what if what itachi said made sense? He still didn't trust any of them, a long monologue about his mental health wasn't going to change that.

Momo suddenly peeked her head into the room, damn the old bat moves fast,"Are you coming or what?,"

0 0 0

Madara looked around the brightly lit, practically empty -aside from a certain bomber and a bed- room. The window was open letting in the smell of the rain and the humid cool breeze, Deidara was sitting up in his bed, a sheet draped over his lap and legs, looking out into the forest absent minded, though he did know his partner had arrived.

It was hard to ignore, Madara had swung the door open with so much force the door would have hit the wall had it not been for the hinges limited motion and the wind picked up by it ruined his concentration on the other chakra signatures in the house.

Madara couldn't help but gape like a fish at Deidara's hair, his reddened skin, slimy from some kind of balm and his bandaged hands.

"Fool, yeah," Deidara spat,"You should have...You should have just let things be," his voice morphing in Madara' ears, with every word the voice of TaiTai became even louder, "You Uchiha are so annoying, trying to control everything,"

"I saved you life, how is that trying to control everything?," The Uchiha latched his hand onto his wrist behind his back.

"It was not your business to butt into, yeah," The blonds hands clutched the sheet over his legs.

"Not my..." He was serious about this, he actually thought that... Madara sighed,"Your right, I should have just let you die. You could have gone to the after life peacefully unaware that Sasuke survived,"

Probably should have split that up, make it not so blunt. Too late now.

Ah well.

"HE WHAT?~!," Deidara exclaimed loudly, snapping his head around to look at Madara.

Said man twisted his finger around in his exposed -and ringing- ear,"Finally a reaction worthy of your character,"

The blond stared at him unblinkingly, before a firm look passed over his face,"Then I have a goal, hmm. To finish off Sasuke Uchiha once and for all, and succeed in becoming the ultimate art,"

"Life is already fleeting enough as it is,"

"Fuck you,"

Madara scoffed, If Dei was going to act like that then he was going to go Tobi on his ass. Just like old times.

Was this some kind of new idea? not at all. It was just for the hell of it. What could he lose? He didn't have to Dei to begin with, he probably wasn't going to have him at the end.

He may as well get SOMETHING out of everything he had to put up with.

Madara chuckled playfully,"Quite the enticing offer but I think I'll have to decline," he stepped closer to the bed,"I do believe you owe me something for my saving your life,"

Deidara shifted his eyes around, what was up with the sudden change in atmosphere?,"I don't owe you shit, you-!," his partner leaned closer, which meant his FACE was getting closer, no, no, no, no, no, no! He did not like this!, "Madara I'm warning you!,"

He sent Madara a glare as warning, trying to ward him off and figure out exactly what the hell he thought he was doing, "I'm serious! yeah,"

The taller ninja stalled -It was _supposed _to be a joke- but just for a second.

"Love is nothing but a weakness," he said, grabbing Deidara by the chin forcing his head further up,"But you're the exception,"

The blond couldn't stop the horror and surprise he felt from passing over his face as his partner, the once goofy as fuck Tobi, gently pressed his lips to against his own.

Not a joke anymore.

Madara snaked his arm around HIS bombers torso, bringing him closer when he felt HIS Deidara's bandaged hand reach up and snag the front of his shirt and when HIS Dei began to respond to the kiss on his own.

It wasn't a 'Romance scene kiss'. Not by a long shot. It looked more like the beginning of some kind of Guro Porn Manga with a hospital theme. Who cared? the ninja had finally gotten what he wanted.

That was until he felt Deidara's jaw lock up, like he was contemplating taking his chance to bite him.

And -at the very thought of getting injured- his ninja training and instincts kicked in, making him bite down instead.

The blond whined and he quickly let go of Deidara who would have fallen off the bed if he didn't have a death grip on the taller mans shirt. (**A/N: this is why emotionally damaged people should never kiss others without the proper training on Teddy kiss-a-lot!)**

Oh for the love of Rikudo! Can a good thing ever last?~! It finally happened and what? He fucking BIT him!

Deidara clasped a hand over his mouth, his pinky lightly touching the bleeding cut on his lip.

"Are you okay?," Madara put a hand out to pull his hand down but Deidara pivoted away from his touch, "Deidara I didn't mean to..." he sighed.

So, Itachi had told the truth and everything had gone to hell -That joke was too easy to make-. Smooth going, that damn two bit, trained circus poodle.

Telling the _TRUTH_, doesn't he know ignorance is sometimes the best thing for a person.

"Tobi," there was a light knock on the door, signaling the two that there was a less than welcomed visitor,"Granny told me to come bring you back to your room," Kisame said in small voice.

Madara looked him up and down, he was pale. Looked like he had seen a ghost or something.

"You boys better pray you didn't break anything!," Momo's voice rang like a siren.

The shark man rubbed his neck and grinned sheepishly, stepping out of the way of the Uchiha.

Madara looked once more to the blond who's loose falling hair had hidden his eyes, fingers still prodding the stinging wound on his face-, then with Kisame as escort went back to his room.

Where he stayed, sulking for the rest of the night.

Emotions _**suck**_.

(The medicine Mada was supposed to take was a tranq. (Sleeping pill)*shhhh* don't tell Momo he didn't take them)

**Next morning**

Madara stared at the completely uninteresting blank, wall across the room with a bored expression. Momo was changing his morning bandages -there weren't that many, only on his arms and a couple on his stomach and chest- Blabbering away about something Hiro ,who sat on the floor in the corner -where she usually was so she wasn't in the way- was playing with their pathetically struggling cat.

Poor thing was digging its nails into the floor as the little girl pulled her back to brush her with a stiff bristled brush.

The cat was only given a break when the door opened, making Hiro look away from her activity -A kitties version of torture-, letting the cat escape and bolt out said door bushy tailed, through Konan's legs.

Hiro chased after the cat, following the same path, attempting to dive through Konan's legs, the bluette simply raised her leg, stopping the inevitable colliding of the two before it ever happened.

That wasn't to say much about the pot plant out in the hall though.

_*CLINK*_

"I'm okay!,"

"What's that?," Madara asked, spotting the box she held, it was wrapped in a plain white cloth, you can understand the confusion when Konan said,"Deidara told me to give you this," She walked over and set it on his lap,"He promised it wouldn't explode,"

The two Shinobi heard Momo laugh quietly.

"**Ooh, I smell blood,"**

"GRANNY!,"

That laugh melted into an exasperated sigh,"Oh Kami, I had my hands full with ONE child," She put the roll of bandages she held down on the bed and stood from the stool she was sitting on,"Now I have a whole house full of 'em," she started to stomp out of the room.

"Don't be fooled, they're all quite civilized when you tell them to behave as such," The paper user said.

"I think a switch would pound it into them permanently," the door slammed.

Niether of the shinobi cared, Madara was too interested in his gift, as he stared at it for a moment with Konan watching on eagerly. She loved gifts, even if it wasn't for her she wanted to see what it was.

The elder mused as he began to pull back the wrapping.

There were no thanks uttered, no embrace like they always have in those cheesy romance novels when the prince saved the princess. No happy ending. Lots of blood though, yes lots and lots of blood.

And scars.

_And_ yelling.

Even so as he carefully un folded the paper, the message Deidara had tried to convey was obvious.

Inside a glass box which made up the frame of the gift, sat a little white raven. It was one of Dei's creations. If anything that meant more to Madara than the blond could have imagined.

It drove him to want to carry out the fantasy he had created in his mind. He had leverage this time.

He still didn't like all emotions though. like lust. fuck that, that feeling is an ass.

"Konan..." Madara forced back the smile threatening to break his serious demeanor -not in front of Konan, not _EVER_-,"Before you leave I would just like to ask you something,"

Konan looked hesitant,"Alright,"

"Why don't you like the fact that I care for Deidara?,"

"I know you Madara, maybe not as much as Itachi, but enough to make a fair judgement of character." The bluette took a deep breath,"Madara, people like you can't love."

The Uchiha frowned.

"That's what I thought at least, however that bird you have there proves me wrong." Konan gave a small smile,"My dislike of the situation is that you will hurt Deidara-," Madara opened his mouth to object but she waved her hand,"Not physically or emotionally but psychologically. How would you go about him wanting to go off and train alone in the mountains to develop the new CX he's been working on?,"

CX huh? Well...If he wanted to do that.

"I'd let him go," Madara said seriously, "If that's what he wants...As long as he knows he's mine and swears not to self destruct again,"

"Such bold words,"Konan said with a small smile,"I can only hope you have the reserve to back up your statement."

(that was originally the ending but i don't feel like writing a separate epilogue!)

**8 months later **

The two toned plant man stood outside of Madara's new lab door, contemplating whether or not he should knock and let the man who called him know he was there, or if he should just go back to his green house.

Ever since the episode 8 months ago Madara had been acting...Strange.

It wasn't a drastic change no, but he did seem 'cheerier' every now and again.

It was really creepy.

Hesitantly Black zetsu lightly knocked, the buzzing sounds that could heard all the way down the hall stopped and there were light, echoing footsteps, before the door cracked open and Madara -back in his full masked glory- peeked out,"Ah, Zetsu, I'm glad you're here," he opened the door and ushered in the plant man.

Zetsu looked around curiously at all the tubes and wires, shelves and glass jars on the walls and ceilings.

"You have something to tell me," The elder said, closing the door.

Both halves of Zetsu blinked, how did he know?,"**We saw one of Deidara's eagles heading north**, _**we wanted to know if you wanted us to trail him**_,"

Madara shook his head with a small laugh,"I'm aware he left, I'm the one that told him the best place for training,"

See? 'Creepy'.

_"You," _the light half stuttered,**"Uh"** The darker half mimed,_**"Huh?,"**_

"Is it really so hard to believe that I would let him be on his own for a while?,"

_**"Yes, yes it is,"**_

"Well, honestly I did have my own selfish reasons for letting him leave," he pushed past Zetsu and headed to the metal exam table the two toned man seemed to have missed earlier. Picking up a long glass tube with several of the wires hanging from the ceiling attached to the black bumpy cap.

He eyed the object warily,_**"What's that?,"**_

Madara shook the tube, making the previously invisible clear liquid inside shake,"Zetsu, It's time for you to play as a distraction,"

0 0 0

Black Zetsu sighed for what seemed like the millionth time that hour, as white Zetsu once again looked at his imaginary wrist watch. They were waiting for the cell team of Konoha ninja.

They were SUPPOSED to be here an hour ago! It was boring as fuck just sitting here, even the squirrel that was currently standing next to the plant man, staring at him with wide almond shaped eyes and its nose twitching.

The little creature's tail flicked, it's nose rose in a sniffing motion, before it scampered off out of sight.

"_FINALLY!_ _You guys suck at being on time,"_ White Zetsu said dramatically as the group of Konoha ninja landed on the forest floor below them.

"You," The Jinchuuriki co-leading the team of nine spat in disgust.

Zetsu -knowing what attack would be coming at him next if he didn't stop the pipsqueak- spoke up quickly,"**Tsk, tsk**, _If you attack me_ _**I won't tell you where Sasuke is**_,"

"Sasuke?," Naruto whispered,"You have him?~!,"

"_No_. **He's at the old Uchiha hideout,** _he's in pretty bad shape_." At the mention of the hideout the entire group of Konoha shinobi perk in interest.

Sakura grew worried, "I'm afraid to ask why,"

"**Four words. **_**Itachi Uchiha is dead."**_ That got many things out of the way, very quickly.

Thank the Sage for blunt and direct answers.

The team gasped themselves into silence, leaving Kakashi to step forward,"Why are you telling us this? what do you want," he demanded.

"**Kakashi Hatake the little genius prodigy,**_ always knows there's no such thing as a simple act of kindness_," The copy ninja rolled his eye, some enemy this was."**Our master simply wants Sasuke's file,"**

"Huh?," The teens of the group all -excluding Shino- chimed dumbly.

"_**We want Sasuke Uchiha's FILE, **_**his statistics, his information, his blood type, **_The whole sack of peaches_," Black Zetsu sighed, Peaches? leave it up to white Zetsu to ruin the 'Bad-ass' vibe they had going.

Beneath his hood Shino raised an eyebrow,"Why?,"

"_**Personal reasons,"**_

Naruto broke out of his silence with a large grin and hyper voice,"Ha! yeah right! Like we'd ever bargain with the Akatsuki!,"

The rest of the group nodded in agreement with the Jinchuuriki.

_**"Can't say we didn't try,"**_ Zetsu shrugged.

The Jinchuuriki turned and yelled at his group to keep moving and in a flash they were all gone. Off on their way to the old Uchiha hideout.

**"Lord Madara was right, **_they really were stupid enough to stand here and talk to us_,"

000

Madara tugged on the barely conscious teenagers spiky hair, pulling his head up at a strange angle. He winced as his neck cramped and strands of hair were plucked from their roots.

The elder put one foot over Itachi's frozen corpse and heaved the youngest close enough to land on his elder brother when he was finally let go.

Sasuke shivered at the feeling of being watched by the soul less -yet still glazed- eyes.

Madara placed his foot on the back of sasuke's head pushing his face into the fabric of Itachi's blood soaked shirt,"Don't worry, I'm not seeking out revenge. That's Dei's job," the youngest wheezed for breath,"However, I will be taking this," Madara squeezed the clump of hair he held in his fist.

The foot was removed and Sasuke rose up gasping for air.

Behind him Madara heard the earth break apart and an excited gasp.

White Zetsu gushed at the sight of Sasuke, **"You're a terrible person,**_**Dei would be proud,"**_

_**FIN**_

_**(Next week the bad ending MWHAHAHA!)**_

**I like how the whole mood turns into a WingedAvenger torture fic there at the end. She's fucking awesome at writing torture...oh. Sooooo, there was no lemon, guess this story goes from Yaoi to Shonen-ai?**

**Final Thankies: Yuti-chan, QueenOfFanFicWorldLoveGUnner, DragonFire44, Lazy Gaga, Nendo Tenshi and Smrt1 ^_^... I hope everyone enjoyed it! There will be a sequal .Eventually. I will NOT plan while I write anymore! THANK YOU! -JA!**


	19. Alternate Ending 2: Art

Madara growled loudly as he pull against the chakra suppressing chains that held him back against a cold stone wall.

This was not how he expected to wake up! It was freezing, his shirt was still ripped to shreds, along with his gloves and his shoes seemed to have gone off on their own over to the other side of the dungeon like cell place he had been thrown in.

He was covered in Bandages so he assumed that whatever happened to have him end up in here happened after Momo helped Deidara and fixed him up.

At least that wasn't a dream...

Through the pitch dark room a small crack of light appeared.

The elder winced as the light grew large in a sudden burst and invaded his most sensitive sense.

"I see you are awake Madara," Madara quickly got over the pain he felt when he heard the deep voice.

Oh hell no.

"Nagato," he said through his teeth, gritted in anger. He paused to take a breath, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?~!,"

The orange haired zombie looked over to the young Uchiha who had appeared out of nowhere, "I told you he would be angry Itachi, aren't you glad we chained him up?," he said in a voice that dripped of arrogance.

"Hn,"

Madara;s eye twitched,"Is anyone going to answer me?~!," he demanded.

The two younger shinobi looked back over to him,"Oh right, well Madara, there is very important news that we must tell you," Pain said.

"So you chained me up," The elder deadpanned.

"It has to do with...Deidara,"

"Why? Did he..."

Pain nodded wordlessly.

Madara's chest clenched tightly, his body sagged back against the wall and he ran a hand over his face, something wet and warm seeped through the cloth of his torn gloves.

"It isn't what you think Sensei,"

"Oh...And how do you know what I-..." The older raven glared at the younger,"You looked into my thoughts," it was a question it was a statement, one that said "I hate you ten times more now".

"I did but there is a very simple explanation for why," Itachi said simply, going on to tell Madara that he was sick, to which Madara had rolled his eyes.

"I know I was sick Itachi,"

"Then you know that Deidara was nothing more than a hallucination?," Pain cut in.

"What the fuck are you talking about?," Madara looked back and forth between the two, trying to read the their faces.

"Your fever was so severe that you used your own memories to construct a fantasy world," The youngest ninja explained,"That's the only reason I am not ringing your neck for releasing those prisoners into Konoha,"

"If Itachi wouldn't have retrieved you, who knows what might have happened. You staged a Coup without even realizing it." Nagato's personality were shining through with that statement.

He and Itachi both faded away from Madara's vision, standing in their place with his arms crossed over his chest was none other than Deidara."So you where never really here," the Uchiha grumbled.

The blond shook his head,"No, hmm,"

Madara hung his head in guilt, not over what happened to Konoha or even Deidara, "But, we were together," Weren't they?

"That's right snot, yeah," Deidara snorted, "Just not how you wanted us to be,"

Madara looked hopeful for a moment,"Would it have changed if I had acted sooner?,"

Deidara shook his head, "Some things can't be changed, hmm,"

"Are...You're leaving?," The 'bomber' nodded,"I don't want you to go,"

"There isn't anything you can do about that. But don't worry, you'll see me again soon enough," Deidara smirked knowingly.

"How do you know?," Madara said with as much confusion in his voice as was showing on Itachi's and Pain's faces.

Deidara tilted his head in a very Uchiha type manor and put his index finger on his temple, "Tobi doesn't remember? Deidara-sempai knows everything," he tapped his head making his old partner chuckle weakly.

"You were an annoying asshole, yeah. But you were my annoying asshole," Madara looked away as his image faded.

The two other shinobi watched on, even if they only had heard one side of the conversation it still peeked their interest.

Madara really had cared for the boy.

Perhaps a little too much. His death had been for the best.

"Itachi, call Zetsu in,"

Zetsu...Ah Zetsu

He could _help_. He could help with his revenge! The pot of madness bubbled inside the Uchiha's mind.

And he didn't even have to worry about screwing up his plans. He needed Sasuke. But that didn't mean he couldn't dish out a little leveler. Even out the playing field. It was so simple

It was laughable even!

All he had to do was torment the fucker in Itachi's image.

Itachi narrowed his eyes at his old teacher, knowing exactly what was going through his mind just by the way his lips pulled back into a sinister smirk.

"Madara," Back to first names, ooh, he was serious, "I will say this once and only once. Do not go near my brother,"

"Why, whatever are you talking about Itachi?," Madara was back to normal it seemed. Complete with his usual ''innocent like a child'' voice.

"I know you, your thirst for revenge is unquenchable,"

"If you know me so well, you should already know I don't make promises I don't intend on keeping," Madara bobbed his head over into a tilt. Intensifying his creepy demeanor even more.

Itachi looked at him with at disgust before tossing the key onto the elder's lap.

He would find out just what a grave mistake he had made, leaving Madara Uchiha alive. And setting him free.

**(Time skip to a couple months later)**

Konan shifted through the piles of paper work stacked next to the door of Madara's office with a deep frown on her face. So much work. How could one man be such a stickler and a procrastinator at the same time?~!

All the while sitting at his desk, Madara watched her with a forlorn expression.

The bluette grumbled, she was sick of seeing him act like that, all sad and depressed when someone was around. Everyone knew damn well he wasn't either of those things. It was all just a trap,"Quit being such a baby, you're the one that did all this, if it wasn't for you Deidara wouldn't have died,"

"You're right,"

The paper user's back straitened out and she was twirled around, facing Madara in an instant,"Excuse me?,"

"I said you're right," Konan took a step back as he stood, "It is my fault Deidara's dead, it's my fault the only student I ever had is dead," he said strangely sincerely, "It's my fault almost all of the members are dead, it's my fault the rest of the world hates us," Backed up against a wall the woman gulped , Madara placed a hand on the wall above her head, "And it's my fault everyone I will ever meet will turn on me,"

"From this moment on you are officially the first member of the akastuki to defect from the organization and live,"

Konan stared wide eyed.

"I want you and Nagato out of the hideout by Sun rise,"

Madara frowned when Konan froze, "But...Sir,"

"Don't tell me...Nagato is dead too?,"

The kunoichi nodded,"Naruto Uzumaki invaded our safe zone the other day, Nagato gave his life to resurrect the Leaf Village,"

"Then you should honor his last action and leave now,"

"You just said I had until sun rise,"

"Well now you have an hour." The elder twitched when she refused to move, "GO!,"

Konan stared warily before huffing and ducking under his arm to resume her work. Much to the Uchiha's displeasure.

She could leave, that was all fine and dandy but that didn't mean she _COULD_ or _WOULD _follow his order. She had more important things to do here at the moment.

Madara shrugged, the dark air around him turning back into his usual more sinister aura, see? just a trick."Zetsu," The plant man fazed out of the wall where he had been sitting, eaves-dropping on the two Shinobi,"It's time for you to pay little Sasuke a visit,"

Konan slammed the papers she had picked up back down again.

Zetsu looked at her out of the corner of his eye,**"What about you Lord Madara?,"**

"I have some business I need to take care of,"

000

Sasuke blinked his eyes open as his senses finally returned and he once again had enough strength to lift his eyelids.

The fight with his brother had taken quite the toll on his body, every muscle ached, every inch of his skin burned. At least it was over.

Yes, it was finally over. The young raven sat up, pulling the strange blanket up a little over his bandaged but otherwise bare body, letting his eyes droop in contentment for a moment.

It was foolish not to question his surroundings, he knew it. He had no reason to doubt them however, Karin, Suigetsu and Juugo could easily explain-

"Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke," his eyes snapped open,"You seem to find yourself in this predicament quite a lot, don't you?,"

No, no, no. It couldn't be, it was impossible. Sasuke shook his head disbelievingly as his elder brother stepped out of the shadow that hid the entrance to the cavern.

The chakra signature, the look of his skin, the way he carried himself as he walked into the light.

"But I-...I saw you..." Sasuke stuttered.

"Saw me what?," In a flash 'Itachi' was crouched next to Sasuke, "Die?," Sasuke winced as a forceful hand seized his hair.

It wasn't a trick of the light or of his mind, it wasn't a genjutsu or a dream.

He felt himself be pushed over and smothered by something very heavy,"Sorry, foolish little brother," he heard the older chime,"It seems your hatred wasn't strong enough,"

It was more sinister. It was _real._

'Itachi' chuckled darkly. How kind Madara had been, letting him torture the fledgling.

Sasuke squirmed under the heavier ninja's body weight.

Oh, this was going to be fun.

**(You can fill the rest of that torture in with your own minds XD. I will narrow it down for you though, he either got **_*bleep*_** or they had cake.)**

000

Momo Sighed sadly as she trailed behind the less than patient shinobi that had pulled her from her home and was now forcing her to follow him to the top of the highest waterfall in Roku falls.

Held tightly in her grip was the metal plate of a headband, slashed and dull but still somehow shining in its own way.

Reaching the edge of the cliff overlooking the dense cluster of trees below Madara looked around. Catching sight of the corner of Momo's roof out of the corner of his eye.

_"A house! Look ya' bloody idiot there's a house!,"_

"Throw it," he said.

The herbalist's jaw slacked a bit, before she smiled lightly, finally understanding what he wanted.

With a under toss the metal went flying over the edge, through the leaves of the branches. Neither of the elders could hear the sound of the dainty splash it made when it landed, the roar of the fall was too loud.

But Madara felt better, knowing it would soon rust and flake away until there was nothing left.

Something created to last, a piece of workmanship, would disappear. It's smooth surface would turn ugly and it would never shine again.

It beauty would -for lack of a better term- die.

There could be no better memorial for a pyro artist.

**FIN (For real this time)**

**Note: 'Itachi' was actually a Zetsu clone. ^_^**

**I know this may piss off some of you guys but this, yes THIS ending right here was the original ending I had planned! You can see why there are two now. **


End file.
